Segun Showunmi in Ibadan.
After a couple of weeks of a fire incident that happened at Onipepeye bridge, along Lagos/Ibadan express way, where some people were burnt to death, another fire incident also broke up on Friday midnight in Orita-Aperin Market, Ibadan, destroying goods worth millions of naira.
The Babaloja of Orita-Aperin market, Abiodun Hammed while speaking with journalists at the scene of the incident on Saturday, said that goods worth millions of naira was lost to the inferno, 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 norsel of their truck was not functioning, so we have to resolve to self help by putting out the fire ourselves, or else, the lost 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 this was what makes the total value of the goods affected by the fire to be much.
“The shops that were affected include shop of a jeweries seller, shop of a food ingridient seller, shop of a provisions seller, red oil seller and herbs seller among others, five million, six hundred thousand was the worth of jeweries that got burnt, and most of the goods affected in the shops of the herbs seller can not be replace 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 aids because the loss was too much for the victim to bear.
One of the victim, who’s shops was also affected by the fire, Latifat Adegbola appealled to the Oyo State government to assist them financially because the money they used to buy the affected goods 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 aids so that we can survive.”
Also speaking to news men was a pepper and onion seller, Mariam Oladepo, who said she lost a goods worth one hundred thousand to the inferno, adding that her shop has been raised by the fire and nothing remain for her and her childreen to feed on again.
The market women however alledged that the fire would have not gone to that extent if the Oyo State Fire Servce truck that was deployed to the scene of the incident function properly.
