| Sorrow as Tejuosho
market goes aflame
By ROSE SENEWO, OLUWATOYOSI OGUNSEYE, NANA AHMADU
and TAIWO AFOLABI
Friday , July 30 2004
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Tejuosho
market goes aflame
Photo: Sun News Publishing |
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Barely 24 hours after a stakeholders meeting on how to improve
facilities in the popular Tejuosho Market, an inferno swept
through it in the wee-hours of yesterday reducing the extension
area of the ultra-modern market to a heap of rubble.
The actual loss could not be immediately ascertained as at
press time but a source put a rough estimate at hundreds of
millions of naira.
Although, the fire was said to have started at about 3.30a.m,
as at 10 a.m the fire service men and sympatisers were still
battling to tame it.
One of the affected traders, Mr John Okeugu of shop 1545 A
Line told Daily Sun that he lost all his goods to the fire.
With tears in his eyes, he said: "I came to the market
this morning and what I saw almost gave me a heart attack.
I saw a raging fire. By the time I moved into the market,
my shop has been razed. Where do I start? I had goods worth
more than N1 million in that shop. I am done for."
Another trader, Mr. John Okagwu counted himself lucky because
only the door to his shop was burnt. "Today is my lucky
day. The fire only razed the door to my shop. I would have
committed suicide if the fire had consumed my property. I
will definitely do a thanksgiving in my church."
Chinedu, a resident of the area said that they were helpless
when the fire started. "The fire started around 1.a.m.
We could not do anything about it because the gates of the
market were tightly locked. When the fire service came, they
couldn’t do anything immediately because of the locked
gates. As tight as the market is, the local government built
over 100 new shops. There is no space between the shops, that
was why so many were razed."
For Emeka, one of the victims, the world has suddenly come
to an end as all that he laboured for during his 20 years
sojourn in Lagos have been incinerated.
"One of my friends called me early in the morning around
4.a.m that the market was burning. I immediately left my Mangoro
residence to come down here. In fact, I was almost robbed
at Ikeja because it was still too early.
"When I got here, the firemen were already around, but
the area boys would not allow them to enter. They looted and
carted away people’s goods and money and resisted the
firemen."
Despite their sorrow and losses, the traders praised the fire
service for coming to their aid quickly while they called
on the Federal Government to help rebuild their shops.
"Even if we are not given monetary compensation, Federal
Government should kindly build new shops for us," one
of the affected traders pleaded.
In-between wailing, the traders blamed the ugly incident on
the local government authorities in charge of the market.
They accused them of collecting money from people and erecting
shops everywhere including the areas designated as car park
thereby limiting the space and rendering the market inaccessible.
However, the local government chairmen who were among the
early sympathisers who thronged the market exonerated themselves.
They argued that the shops had been erected many years before
they assumed office.
"Well, we quite sympathise with all the victims and we
understand their apprehension. But I must, however, say that
we met those key clamps there and it would be bad if we decided
to remove them because that will mean that we are stopping
a lot of people from getting their daily bread," one
of them said.
While also denying the allegation that some key clamps were
built about a month ago, the local government chairmen said,
"if they are saying that some were built about a month
ago, then we are not aware of it. It is unfortunate that this
has happened but we promise that adequate measures will be
taken to checkmate it in the future."
Alhaji Ganiyu Olofa, Chairman of Tejuosho Extension market
said he received a call around 4.a.m that the market was burning
and immediately came around.
"When I got here, the whole place was occupied by area
boys and even when the fire service men came at about 5am,
they couldn’t go in because the whole place was blocked
by key clamps."
Area Commander of Area C station, Mr. Sam Adegbuyi who was
also at the scene told Daily Sun that his command received
a call around 4.a.m and immediately came around.
He said that the fire must have started due to carelessness
on the part of either the government or the traders, as there
were no fire extinguishers in the whole market.
Adegbuyi also debunked claims that some area boys carted away
things, adding that about 150 policemen were drafted to the
scene to curtail such development.
"Those people you see carrying away goods are the owners
and not area boys. We have been here since 5.45a.m and did
not allow such thing to happen. As you can see, the situation
is now normal and we hope that in the next one or two hours,
everything will be over," he said.
Mr Oko Anthony of the Lagos Fire Service who was also at the
scene told Daily Sun that although his men came in time, they
were handicapped because the whole place was blocked and they
could not enter.
While also commending the efforts of Julius Berger who came
to join forces with them to put out the fire, Oko said the
extent of damage would have been minimised if they had been
able to gain entrance in time.
While on a visit to the site of the inferno, the state governor,
Bola Ahmed Tinubu promised to ensure a speedy reconstruction
of the market.
He also warned against any attempt by the traders to undertake
reconstruction on their own saying any such constructions
will be pulled down.
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