Ibadan fire razes 150 shops •3 hospitalised

Posted by admin Oyo, State News Tuesday, January 25th, 2011

STALLS and shops close to the notorious Ojoo roundabout in Akinyele Local Government Area of Oyo State, on Tuesday, went up in flames, leaving three people, including a woman, with varying degrees of burns.

More than 150 stalls, shops, shop-containers and goods worth millions of naira and two vehicles were destroyed in the inferno which lasted three hours.

The Head of Operations of the Oyo State command of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), Mr Joshua Adekanye, who confirmed the incident, said the driver of a tanker containing petroleum had, in the process of negotiating a bend, lost control, leading to the fall of the vehicle.

He said as soon as the vehicle fell, the content poured on the road and consequently caught fire, which led to injuries sustained by the driver and two people selling wares at the roundabout.

When the Nigerian Tribune visited the scene of the incident, one of the victims had been rushed to a nearby hospital, before he was moved to the University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan, for treatment.

The FRSC commander said the three victims had been rushed to the UCH, adding that no life was no lost in the incident.

It took the combined effort of the military personnel attached to the Adekunle Fajuyi Cantonment, the police, officials of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), officials of the state fire service and other individuals to put off the fire and ensure that it did not spread to other places.

One of the shop owners, Mrs Tawa Sunday, a trader in telephones and accessories, said all her wares were destroyed but she thanked God that her life and that of her husband were spared.

Another stall owner, Ikechukwu Nwachukwu, was short of words when he was approached, saying that there was nothing he could say about the incident.

-Tribunewp_posts