A female trader was said to have lost a huge sum of money
she kept buried in her shop during a fire incident razed the Daleko
market, in the Mushin area of Lagos on Sunday.
The yet-to-be identified trader was nowhere to be found
after the fire was put out as Journalists
began to look for her.
A reporter who visited the scene of the fire could see a
huge hole in what used to be her shop where the money was said to have been
buried.
An anonymous trader who spoke to newsmen said the woman was
in the habit of keeping her money in the underground, instead of taking it
to the bank.
Osun Defender reports:
He said, “The woman usually keeps money in her shop, and
would use her goods to cover it.
“But we are not sure if the whole money was destroyed by
the fire. The theory here is that those that arrived first at the market saw
the money and stole it.”
However, conflicting figures given by the traders made it
difficult to ascertain the exact amount that was lost.
While some said it was between N2m to N5m, others put it
higher than that.
But an attempt to speak with the said shop owner was
unsuccessful as she was said to have gone to Alausa with other market leaders.
Meanwhile, other traders and shop owners at the market
have appealed to the Lagos State Government to assist them to rebuild their
shops.
No fewer than 120 shops were affected in the fire that
reportedly started around 1am as a result of a power surge.
Our correspondent reported that the affected portion of
the market had been left in ruins, while people were seen trying to gather what
was left.
A vegetable oil trader, Mrs. Monsurat Abiodun, said she
lost goods worth over N2m to the fire.
She said, “It was around 2am on Sunday that my neighbour
called to inform me that the market was on fire. When I got here yesterday
(Sunday), I discovered that everything was gone. All my life savings were in
this shop, now everything is gone. Where do I start from?”
Also, another vegetable oil dealer, Mrs Idowu Adeniji,
also claimed to have recorded huge losses.
A rice seller, Alhaji Kazeem, said he lost over hundred
bags of rice to the fire. He said, “I am ruined; over 100 bags of rice were
lost to this inferno.”
His friend, who is also a rice seller, who identified
himself simply as Ibrahim claimed to have also lost 100 bags of rice to the
fire.
The traders appealed to the state government to come to
their aid.
“We want government to come to our aid. Our hope is for
the government to allow us to rebuild this place, that is how we can recover
our losses with time,” Abiodun said.
The General Manager, Lagos State Emergency Management
Agency, Dr. Femi Oke-Osanyintolu, on Monday visited the market in company with
the Iyaloja-General, Mrs Folashade Tinubu-Ojo on an assessment tour of the
damage caused by the fire.
Oke-Osanyintolu said Governor Babatunde Fashola had
directed the agency to carry out an enumeration and assessment of the affected
victims and found a way of reducing the impact of the disaster.
He also said the agency would establish market emergency
management committees in all the markets in the state to avert such disaster.
Tinubu-Ojo advised the market executives to cooperate
with the government and put off all electrical appliances in the shops after
the close of market.
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