One Injured, Traders Count Their Losses As Fire Guts Oba Lipede Market in Abeokuta

By:Olufemi Orunsola

A late evening fire incident that occurred on Saturday at the popularly Oba Lipede Ultra Modern Market, Kuto in Abeokuta has left one person injured with affected traders still counting their losses as goods worth several millions of Naira were destroyed.

OPEN TELEVISION Naija confirmed from the Iyaloja of the market, Mrs.Tejumade Bakre that the inferno started around quarter past 10:00 pm on Saturday from one the makeshift shops outside the market main building of the market.

"We got a call on Saturday night around 10 pm that the market was on fire. We quickly rushed down here within few minutes many people tried for us, the fire service, TRACE, police, many people called and turned up for us but the fire was much and couldn't be contained till midnight". 

"One of our market security men was seriously injured as he fell down while struggling to quench the fire" she said, thanking God that there was no fatality in the incident.

An eyewitness revealed that the fire outbreak was caused by a power surge in a palm kernel shop that uses gas.

The market leader who granted an interview to OPEN TELEVISION Naija further revealed that no fewer than 15 shops were consumed in the fire which destroyed goods like rice, provisions, other food stuffs, clothing materials and fabrics, about four sewing machines belonging to a fashion designer.

When OPEN TELEVISION NAIJA Naija visited the market on Sunday morning, some traders were seen weeping over their losses, while the other traders empathize with them.

A couple, Basiru and Tolani Moses, had their shops, located next to each other in the market, razed down by the fire.

Basiru said that N500,000 cash was burnt in the incident, while goods worth N1.5 million were affected.

He explained that the cash was kept in the shop for onward deposit at the bank on Monday.

The market leader, Mrs. Tejumade Bakre, lamented that there was looting shortly after the incident, but the security agents later came to contain the situation.

In addition to the prompt response of government functionaries and relevant agencies to the market during the fire incident, the Commissioner for Special Duties, Funmi Efuwape, the Director of the State Emergency Management Agency (OGSEMA), Wale Sonde, Director of State Fire Service, Fatai Adefala, the Chairman of Abeokuta South Local Government, Omolaja Majekodunmi, among other public officers have visited the market on Sunday morning to assess the situation.

Meanwhile, the Iyaloja of Oba Lipede Ultra Modern Market has called upon government at both the Federal and state levels to magnanimously assist the traders who suffered losses in the incident and also consider both short term fixtures and permanent structural fixtures for the burnt shops and stalls at the market.

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.”

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 chief, Adefala, said, “We were called around 10:15 pm 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.”