•Victims allege sabotage in fire disaster, saying hoodlums participated in looting shops
By Orji Sunday Sylvester
The traders were distraught and rightly so. They were victims of last Sunday’s fire disaster, which razed no fewer than 97 shops at the popular Yaba market in Lagos. The affected traders lost goods and cash worth millions of naira. And till this moment they cannot be comforted because all they laboured for in the past years simply went up in flame within a twinkle of the eyes.
Most of the affected traders still cannot come to terms with what happened. Every morning, they leave their homes for the arena that once housed their shops. Looking at the charred remains of the buildings consumed by the raging fires a few days ago fills their hearts with sadness and sorrow. It distresses them very deeply. But that is the reality for now.
Most of the traders who crowded around their shops lamented losing goods and cash worth several millions of naira. Some of them whose shops were not directly affected by the fire incident said their goods were looted even when some policemen from Sabo and Adekunle police stations said to have been deployed to the scene of the fire to prevent some criminal elements from looting the shops.
“We lost goods in the unaffected shops,” a distraught trader kept lamenting. “I came here to discover that even when the fire did not directly affect some shops, the bad boys seized the opportunity to loot our shops. Many of us can’t even locate our goods.”
Another victim, Chinedu Udoka, tearfully said: “We are not new to this type of disaster. I feel someone is just waiting for us to recover from our previous loss to bring us back to square one. I am just tired of this kind of rising and falling. We decided to crowd this place because the new shops were too expensive. Now, this problem has arisen, threatening to send us back to the village.”
Another victim said: “We were all affected. Most of us here are devastated and we cannot speak. This is not the right time to ask questions. It is very difficult to say a word. Perhaps, when we have found our words, you will hear from us.”
Alhaji Audu is also one of the traders at the market. Recalling what he knew about the incident, he said: “I was not here last Sunday when the fire started because I don’t come to the market on that day. But when I arrive here the next morning, what I saw distressed me. Almost all the shops here have been burnt. That shop (pointing at one of the charred spots) used to be full of shoes. You can see that everything has burnt to ashes. I think that somebody put the fire in the affected shops because there was no NEPA supply at the said hour when the incident started.”
Last Sunday’s incident was said to have started at 12.30am, destroying goods worth millions of naira and affecting more than 94 shops in Yaba Shopping Complex opposite the Presbyterian Church.
The fire was said to have started from one of the shops behind the shopping complex where wears, shoes and bags were stored. Soon it spread forcefully from one shop to another, resisting the efforts of the Lagos State Emergency Management Agency (LASEMA) and other sympathisers, who reportedly arrived the scene of the event.
Confirming the incidence, the General Manager, of LASEMA, Mr. Adesina Tiamiyu, said: “The agency received a distress call at about 12.45am, regarding a fire incident in one-storey building shopping complex opposite Presbyterian Church, Yaba.
“Investigation conducted by the agency’s Emergency Response Team at the scene revealed that the fire started from one of the shops at the back of the complex where wears, shoes, bags were burnt, leaving 94 shops out of 201 in the complex destroyed. A total number of 117 shops were salvaged by the emergency responders, including men from the Alausa and Ilupeju fire stations.”
When Daily Sun visited the area, many of the traders gathered in small groups still discuing the disaster. They wore long faces etched with pain, grief and loss.
According to an eye witness, the difficulty encountered in fighting the fire was because of poor access to the complex. He added that most of the shops were locked with iron bars and sometimes with numerous padlocks such that penetrating a single shop could prove very difficult. He said that people were waiting for the government to come to their rescue since most of the affected traders could not bear with the pain of their losses.
Daily Sun learnt that on December 20, 2007, traders in the same market suffered similar fate when their goods were burnt. The loss necessitated the Lagos State government under the watch of Mr. Babatunde Fashola to embark on the reconstruction of the new Tejuosho market, which was later commissioned. After the commissioning ceremony, many of the traders had allegedly complained that they could not afford the rent of the new shops. In their bid to survive, the traders were said to have resorted to making use of the available spaces in the affected shopping complex thus leading to overcrowding.
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