Residents of the Somolu community have expressed mixed feelings over the fire outbreak that razed down about 71 shops at Alade Market on Monday midnight. This is coming after the #Endsar protest that saw it being burnt down for the second time within the space of 4 months.
While some residents described the incident as the handwork of the Alade family who they claimed had been trying to reclaim the space for the family use, others have been pointing accusing fingers at the third tier of government in the community for allegedly burning the place down for redevelopment purpose to meet up with a modern standard of the market saying, that has been their style when taking over any market or space of their choice referencing occurrence in the recent past.
One of the sympathizers who craved anonymity stressed further, “If you’ve forgotten so soon, I will remind you. This is how Tejuosho Market, Yaba, Balogun Market, Lagos Island, Ketu Fruits Market, Amu Plank market were all burnt down and no one of those accused came to refute the claim. The government has always been at the center of the whole mess. she lamented
In a separate reaction yesterday, a Civil engineer and Consultant, Mr. Kunle Adekanye shared diverse views over the fire incident.
For Mr. Kunle, the fire outbreak could be as a result of an electrical malfunction from one of the shops or the carelessness of one of the owners of the shops who might have forgotten to switch off all the electrical appliances before closing for the day.
“it’s not impossible that one of them had left electrical appliances unchecked before retiring back home and in the process, a power surge occurred thereby burning down the affected portion of the market”. He stated
Meanwhile, the Executive Chairman of Somolu local government, Hon. Abdul Hamed Salawu ‘Dullar’ has restated his commitment towards ensuring that fire hydrant and service station are put in place to forestall unnecessary and avoidable fire outbreak in the Somolu community and its environs.
