By Olasubomi Olateju
Traders at Aleshinloye market whose shop were razed by fire on Tuesday night have started counting their losses, calling on government at all levels for assistance.
The Pinpointnews reports that the late night inferno started from the plastic sections of the market around 9:30 p.m on Tuesday.
A visit by our Correspondent on Wednesday discovered that multiple shops were affected, while hoodlums took advantage of the situation to break into some shops and loot goods.
One of the victims in a chat with The Pinpointnews, Mrs Rukayat AbdulLateef, said that two of her shops with over N50 million goods were consumed by fire.
“I just bought about N5.4 million goods in my two shops on Thursday and I have some goods left there before restocking because we don’t normally finished selling the previous goods in the shop before restocking.
“I borrowed money to buy the goods and I am yet to sell up to N1 million goods since I stock last week Thursday.
“I don’t know where to start now,”she said
Another victim, Alhaja Toyeebat Bello, said that she has 10 shops of over N70 million goods that were burnt totally down by the fire.
“I got the information about the fire on Tuesday night, but couldn’t come down at that time, I just got the market now and I find out that all my 10 shops have been affected by the fire.
“What we are hearing before is that government wanted to demolish Aleshinloye market and we have been appealing to them not knowing that this kind of thing will happen,”she said.
Also speaking, a father to one of the victims, Mr Joseph Abiodun, said that her daughter, Kudirat whose shops was affected by the inferno had been hospitalised as a result of the fire.
Abiodun said that the fire started from one of the shops before escalating to other shops due to lateness of the state fire service.
“The Oyo State fire service in the market could not come to our aid because they are saying they don’t have water and fire fighting truck.
“Fire Service from Foodco, Sumal later came while the state fire service too later joined them,”he said.
He called for government assistance for the victims to save their lives, adding that many of the affected trades may die if they receive no assistant.
Also speaking, Sodiq Oloriade, one of the task force at the market and also a victim, said that all his goods in the market have been completely destroyed by the fire.
“The destruction may not have been massive if the state fire station in the market is working,I think the cause of the fire is electric surge,” he said
The Chairman of Oyo State Fire Services Agency, Dr Moroof Akinwande, who sympathized with the affected traders, said they got information about the fire about 10p.m of Tuesday.
Akinwande said that the personnel of the agency immediately swung into action and had been able to put the fire unde control as at Wednesday morning.
Addressing the issue of the fire station in the market not having fire fighting truck and water, he said that fire fighting truck could not be everywhere.
Akinwande said that most of the trucks have been vandalised by people who usually attack their personnel while on duty to extinguish the fire.
He urged the people to always try to control their emotions whenever there is fire incident.
Akinwande said no casualty was recorded by the incident, while security agencies have taken over to prevent breakdown of law and order.
