Posted by By OLUWATOYIN AKINOLA on
As Moslems and Christians nationwide prepared for the celebration of Eid-el-Kabir and Christmas, traders at the popular retail Tejuosho market, had cause to shed tears on Tuesday night, as a reported power surge sparked off an inferno which reduced the market to rubble. In the inferno two people lost their lives.
As Moslems and Christians nationwide prepared for the celebration of Eid-el-Kabir and Christmas, traders at the popular retail Tejuosho market, had cause to shed tears on Tuesday night, as a reported power surge sparked off an inferno which reduced the market to rubble. In the inferno two people lost their lives.
Recounting the unfortunate incident, a butcher in the market, Mr. Sefiu Olawoyin, said the fire started from a shop after power supply was restored to the market.
'It started about 7p.m when NEPA restored power supply. There had been no electricity the whole day and most of the shops were closed. We noticed smoke coming out of a particular shop and we alerted security. By the time we came back, the shop was already burning," he said.
Olawoyin said the fire service was alerted but couldn't do anything immediately, as there was no water. Efforts by the people around to also quench the fire proved ineffective due to the congestion in the market and lack of access into the interior.
The fire service eventually put out the fire but not without the loss of two of its men and the collapse of the pillars and stairways in the market.
Mrs. Mary Ineh, who sells jewelry in the market amid sobs, said she had lost millions to the inferno.
'I sell jewelry, gold, silver all sorts of gold watches. I have just taken new stock, but I couldn't salvage a broom from my store. My loss is close to four million naira.
Where do I start from?" she lamented.
Another trader, Mrs. Joke Giwa, who sells cosmetics, also lamented that she could not retrieve anything.
'I was on my way home. I was already at Onipanu area when I received a call that the market was burning. When I came, I couldn't go inside and I watched helplessly as my shop was consumed," she said.
Mallam Mohammed Jide, who sells leather wares in the market, while accepting his fate said his loss runs into hundreds of thousands.
He said: 'My market go near about N800, 000 wey burn. Even as we try to save some things, thieves dey steal am."
Besides the two deaths, some of the traders were also injured while attempting to salvage their goods.
Speaking to Daily Sun, Dr Oke Osanyintolu, the General Manager of Lagos State Emergency Services, said bodies of two firemen, who were trapped in the rubble, had been recovered, while five people had been taken to hospital for treatment.
The leader of the market women (Iyaloja), Alhaja Ganiyat Amofe Shekete Dosunmu, Daily Sun gathered, was also taken to a hospital for treatment of shock.
As at press time, the specific number of casualties could not be ascertained as there were claims that people were still trapped inside the rubble.
Meanwhile, the special adviser to the Lagos State Governor on Special Duties, Mr. Afolabi Kofo Abayomi, who was at the scene of the carnage with some other officials of the state said Julius Berger had been contacted to bring its equipment to evacuate the place.