Ekiti Promises to Support Traders of Burnt Shasha Market

Gbenga Sodeinde in Ado Ekiti

Following a fire outbreak which razed a section of Shasha Market in Ikere Ekiti in Ekiti State last Saturday, the state government has promised to support traders, who lost their valuables to the inferno.

A section of the market located on Ado-Ikere road was around 4p.m. last Saturday gutted by fire, with property worth millions of naira destroyed in the inferno.

The state Governor, Biodun Oyebanji, who visited the market yesterday, lamented how multi-million naira wares in Amanda structures had been razed down, and urged traders across the state to be conscious of their actions during this dry season period to avert calamity.

Visiting the market alongside members of the State Executive Council, Oyebanji assured the Hausa and Yoruba  traders that were affected by the fire of support to recover their losses.

The governor’s delegation led by the Deputy Governor, Mrs. Monisade Afuye, pledged that the state government would carry out some restructuring in the market by ensuring that adequate spaces are created between blocks to prevent easy spread of fire.

Oyebanji assured them that officers and staff of the Ministry of Trade and Investment would be visiting the market to enumerate the number of victims and take other vital information to provide proper and relevant intervention guide.

In line with the promise made to the traders during the electioneering, the governor said the road leading to the market from the Ado-Ikere-Akure road would be graded to ease transportation along the axis.

Afuye said: “Governor Oyebanji sympathise with you on the losses you suffered, but let us be cautious in all our dealings this time because of the dry season.

“We thank God that no life was lost. We can still make up for those things we have lost through personal efforts and government’s intervention. But if anyone had died, it is irreversible.

“Let us be careful. We never knew the generating set that caused the incident would spark up fire.  We thank God that the person who caused the arson also owned up that he was responsible for it. But government won’t punish him because it was not intentional.

“The government will surely give support for the fact our governor wants everybody plying his trade in Ekiti State to be happy and prosperous, not minding where you came from.

“We will provide roads and other facilities that will guarantee safety and good life here. I also appeal to traders to cooperate with the leadership of Traders’ Association for the maintenance of some of the facilities they provided.”

Similarly, the Iyaloja of Shasha Market, Chief Feyisayo Ayajo, made a passionate appeal to the government to establish a Fire Service Station in the market to always respond to any arson incident timeously.

“This market is big and viable enough to have a fire service station. We plead with the governor to kindly look at this demand and act appropriately to our request. Losing our property to fire can cripple our businesses and render us economically unviable,” she said.