Following the late Saturday night fire that engulfed some parts of Oba Lipede Market, Kuto Abeokuta, the Commissioner for Special Duties, Funmi Efuwape, Abeokuta South Local Government Chairman, Omolaja Majekodunmi, the Director of the State Emergency Management Agency (OGSEMA), Wale Sonde; Director of State Fire Service, Fatai Adefala, among other major stakeholders visited the scene on Sunday morning to assess the level of damages.
Speaking with newsmen, Efuwape said “The fire outbreak was just because of these shanties erected outside the main market building. Now that they (traders) have seen it for themselves, I am sure when the government comes in and tells them that all these shanties must go, definitely they will agree with us that they have to go.
“About ten shops were affected outside and five inside. The five would not have been affected if the ones outside were not there. The fire started from the illegal structures outside and erupted to the main building.”
Asked if demolition will take place, she responded “Definitely. Even yesterday (Saturday) when the fire was burning, the fire tenders could not get in because of lack of space. We need to have enough space so that in future vehicles can move in and out easily.”
The Commissioner disclosed that the main market building will undergo an integrity test to ascertain its safety, while the government will roll out measures to renovate the market.
The Fire chief, Adefala said “We were called around 10:15pm and our men got here on time, but the problem was that we could not access the market on time so we had to go through the back to trace where it started from.
“It was a power surge. There is a palm kernel shop that was doing let’s say recycling and the guy was using gas, there was an outbreak of fire and everything just exploded. That’s where it started from. Those are the chalets outside the main Lipede market.”
The Director of SEMA hinted that the NEMA officials will on Monday visit the market to assess damages and decide on how to assist the victims.
Sonde noted that “physical, economic and psychological damages” have been recorded in the incident.
The market leader, Mrs Tejumade Bakre, lamented that there was looting shortly after the incident, but the security agents later came to the rescue.
It could be recalled that a late-night fire outbreak razed down about 15 shops, destroyed goods worth millions of naira and left one injured at Oba Lipede Market, Kuto, in Abeokuta, Ogun State.
It was gathered the inferno began around a quarter past 10pm on Saturday from one the makeshift shops outside the market.
Witnesses said the fire later extended to the main market building where about five shops were affected by the inferno.
Officials attributed the outbreak to a power surge from a palm kernel shop using gas.
Some of the goods caught in the inferno included rice, provisions, bananas, pot among others.
A couple, Basiru and Tolani Moses, had their shops next to each other in the market, razed down by the fire.
The weeping Basiru told Daily Times that N500,000 cash was burnt in the incident, while goods worth N1.5million were affected.
He said the cash was kept in the shop for onward deposit at the bank on Monday.
