The Akinyele community in Ibadan, Akinyele Local Government Area of Oyo State was thrown into confusion on Wednesday as a trailer park market in the area went up in flames.
The incident occured barely 24 hours after the Soka, Ibadan building belonging to the Yoruba rights activist, Sunday Adeyemo, a.k.a Sunday Igboho, was razed by suspected hoodlums.
Oyo Reporters gathered that the incident happened around 4am leaving several shops and sharks completely razed by inferno.
Items that got destroyed in the inferno include wares such as food items and provision, household wares, spare parts, kegs of diesel and other articles of trade.
Mr Adeleke Ismail, the Director of Operations, Oyo State Fire and Safety Services, in an interview with our correspondent, said,
“Our men attended the fire incident in record time after being alerted. Our people were called and we responded.
“The fire started from one of the dilapidated shops and spread to other shops. In an unorganised setting we cannot determine the number of shops that were gutted by fire. Only the containers and structures built with iron or blocks can be counted.
“We cannot assess the affected items. They were dealing with eatable items and free burning materials such as electronics and wears. As you know, it is a place where trailers park and commercial vehicles also load there. There are food vendors and there are brothels there.”
Speaking with journalists in Ibadan, the Media Aide to the Caretaker Chairman of Akinyele Local Government, Fagbemi Segun, said, “Early this morning, the Chairman, Mr Taoreed Adedigba, received a distress call about a fire incident at trailer park of Akinyele Local Government.
“The total number of the shops that were razed by fire is yet to be known but we learnt that the fire outbreak started around 4am this morning. For now, nobody can ascertain the source of the fire.
“The chairman immediately rushed to the point of the incident to access the situation after contacting all the necessary security personnel, including the fire service, the police and the Amotekun Corps.”
It was gathered that the traditional ruler in the community, Oba James Odeniran, was on hand with the security outfits as efforts were made by the firemen to extinguish the fire.
Some of the traders expressed agony on the incident saying, however, that they could not determine the actual cause of the incident. One of the residents of the area, Salisu Adeijah, said,
“We were still sleeping when the tragic incident happened. We just heard shout of people crying fire, fire.
“We are happy that no life was involved but items worth several amount of naira perished in the fire incident. We lost our personal belongings because this is where many of us live. We have many people traveling to the north and several others coming from the north here.
“Many of our people trade here. Many learn one vocation or the other here. We have lost everything that we have so we are appealing to government to come to our rescue in any way they can.”
