Goods worth millions of naira were on Friday midnight destroyed at the popular Orita-Aperin market in Ibadan, following a fire incident that its course was yet to be known.
This sad development came after a couple of weeks a similar fire incident occurred at the Onipepeye bridge, along Lagos/Ibadan express way, where some people were burnt to death.
While speaking with newsmen at the scene of the inferno on Saturday, the Babaloja of Orita-Aperin, Abiodun Ahmed, said that goods worth millions of naira were lost, adding that the cause of the incident was yet to be known.
According to him: “The fire started by 12 midnight on Friday, and we immediately called on Oyo State Fire Service but unfortunately, when they got here, the nuzzle of their truck was not functioning, so we have to resolve to self help by putting out the fire ourselves, or else, the loss would have been more than this.”
The Babaloja noted that most of the owners of the shops affected by the fire just bought goods into their respective shops, adding that, that was what made the total value of the goods affected by the fire to be much.
“The shops that were affected include shop of a jewelry seller, shop of a food ingredient seller, shop of a provision seller, red oil seller and herbs seller, among others, five million, six hundred thousand was the worth of jewelries that got burnt, and most of the goods affected in the shops of the herbs seller can not be replaced because they were ancient goods that can not be seen on market again.”
He, however, appealed to the Oyo State Government to come to their aide because the loss was too much for the victims to bear.
One of the victims, who’s shop was also affected by the fire, Latifat Adegbola appealed to the Oyo State Government to assist them financially because the money they used to procure the goods that were lost was collected based on interest.
“All my goods has been consumed by fire and the remaining ones are useless, we are calling on the state government to come to our aide so that we can survive.”
Also speaking to newsmen was a pepper and onion seller, Mariam Oladepo, who said she lost goods worth one hundred thousand to the inferno, adding that her shop has been raised by the fire and nothing remains for her and her children to feed on again.
The market women however alleged that the fire would have not gone to that extent if the Oyo State Fire Service truck that was deployed to the scene of the incident functions properly.
Credit: Vanguard
