by Nurat Uthman
One person was injured, 15 shops were razed and goods worth millions of naira were destroyed at a fire outbreak at the Oba Lipede Market, Kuto, in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital.
The inferno reportedly started at around 10 pm on Saturday from one of the makeshift shops outside the market.
According to an eyewitness, the outbreak followed a power surge from a palm kernel shop powered by gas.
It was gathered that some of the goods caught in the inferno included rice, provisions, bananas, and pots.
Visiting the scene on Sunday morning, some traders wept over their losses.
A couple, Basiru and Tolani Moses had their shops next to each other in the market razed.
Basiru said that ₦500,000 cash was burnt in the incident, while goods worth ₦1.5million were affected.
He explained that the cash was kept in the shop for onward deposit at the bank on Monday.
The market leader, Tejumade Bakre, lamented that there was looting shortly after the incident but the security agents later came to the rescue.
The Commissioner for Special Duties in the state, Funmi Efuwape; the Director of the State Emergency Management Agency, Wale Sonde; the Director of State Fire Service, Fatai Adefala; the Chairman of Abeokuta South Local Government, Omolaja Majekodunmi; among other major stakeholders visited the scene on Sunday morning to assess the level of damage.
Speaking with newsmen, the special duties commissioner said, “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.”
Efuwape 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 Service boss also said, “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.”
