One person was injured, 15 shops were razed, and goods worth millions of naira were destroyed in a fire outbreak at Oba Lipede Market, Kuto, in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital.
The fire reportedly started around 10 pm on Saturday from one of the makeshift shops outside the market. According to an eyewitness, the outbreak was triggered by a power surge in a palm kernel shop powered by gas.
Some of the goods caught in the inferno included rice, provisions, bananas, and pots. When visiting the scene on Sunday morning, some traders wept over their losses.
A couple, Basiru and Tolani Moses, had their adjacent shops razed in the fire. Basiru reported that ₦500,000 in cash was burnt, while goods worth ₦1.5 million were destroyed. He explained that the cash was kept in the shop for deposit at the bank on Monday.
The market leader, Tejumade Bakre, lamented that looting occurred shortly after the fire, but security agents eventually arrived to manage the situation.
Several officials visited the scene on Sunday morning to assess the damage, including the Commissioner for Special Duties, Funmi Efuwape; the Director of the State Emergency Management Agency, Wale Sonde; the Director of the State Fire Service, Fatai Adefala; and the Chairman of Abeokuta South Local Government, Omolaja Majekodunmi.
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.”