Labawo fire: A Victim lost over N60 Million , Others count losses

Owners of shops in Ibadan, Oyo State, razed in the Labowo Ogunpa Market inferno con­tinue to count their losses.

The fire outbreak, which was reportedly caused by an electrical fault, started at about 3am on Tuesday, December 9, 2014, burning down a section of the market and destroying over 60 mini shops at the material section.
Although no life was lost, some of the businessmen and women, whose shops were affected, lamented that their life sav­ings were gutted by the fire. One of such victims is Kelvin Obinnakwere, who was seen rummaging through the debris, search­ing for what could be left of his wares. Obin­nakwere, who looked obviously troubled, said that this year has been a tough one for him. He told Saturday Sun that, because of the dwindling fortune of his business, he had to go to his town’s union to borrow some money to buy goods, hoping to cash in on the boom that accompanies Christmas sales. The inferno, a month later, took all the goods.
According to him: “This is a bad time for this fire. It has wrecked me. I have lost al­most N15million in the fire. I just borrowed some money from my town’s union with the hope that I will sell and make profit during this Christmas season. I lost all. Now I have to pay back. Where will I see such money? I borrowed about N3million. Now I have to pay back money I could not use. This is the only source of income I have. I still have children in secondary school. How am I go­ing to send them to school? “I only have N400 in my pocket from a business of 25 years,” Obinnakwere lamented.
Another victim, who also lost his shop to the inferno, Mr. Timothy Eze, claimed he has been selling in the market since 1976. Ac­cording to him, there had not been any form of disaster in the market in recent times.
He said that he has now taken it upon himself to check on and counsel his fellow victims, adding that he has been doing so to avoid post-fire human casualties. For, ac­cording to him, there are some of his fellow victims who are so much affected that the magnitude of their loss could force them to commit suicide.
In his words: “It was a big fire. It was bigger than the operating capacity of the available fire fighters. More than six trucks of fire fighters got to the scene while the fire was raging. The first four fire fighter trucks that arrived had no water. Those that brought them stood for a while communicating on their radios.
“I watched helplessly as fire gutted my life savings. I lost more than N60 million worth of goods, both in my shop and in the store. I lost everything. No pin was removed from the two shops,” pointing at his shop and store.
He added that they were expecting the governor to visit the market and sympathise with the victims. “If you look at the shop, over there is my shop and above it is the store. But it is surprising that our governor has not visited the market since the incident. A local government official came and we queried him on why the governor had not visited. He replied that he had come on be­half of the governor. He brought some of­ficials of the local government to number the shops,” Eze stated.