Traders at the Tejuosho Market, Yaba, Lagos State, on Wednesday, lamented a fire incident that ravaged their stalls, destroying goods and machines they valued at a billion naira.
The fire, which happened on Tuesday, razed the Yaba Goshen Clothing Plaza, popularly known as The Kitchen.
Eyewitnesses claimed that the fire started from the generator stand at the back of the plaza.
When our correspondent visited the market on Wednesday, she observed that the stalls and machines had been reduced to scraps and ashes.
Several stall owners were seen carrying burnt remains of their machines as others cried with hands on their heads, while sympathisers consoled them.
The owner of the plaza, Godswill Okorie, who spoke to PUNCH Metro, said the whole building was burnt down in less than 30 minutes.
He said, “I was called immediately the fire started. I got here within five minutes and in less than 30 minutes, the plaza was down. Everyone ran out because they were trapped. The whole plaza went down, but no life was lost.
“This place is big and houses over 1,000 people every day. The open space was a hall divided into small stalls and shops and we had 150 stalls that contained about six to eight traders per stall. Six people mean six industrial machines. We produce clothes, sell to boutiques in Lagos and outside Nigeria. From 5am every day, this place is already booming. We even sell to the United States of America. We have lost over a billion naira. One of my tenants here just bought two machines that cost N1.7m. All the materials, machines and money are scraps now.”
A trader, Chukwu Oje, who had two shops and nine workers, said he did not know where to begin again.
He said, “This happened around 3pm. I need assistance; this is the only place I earn my living and now everything is gone. I do not even know where to start. Let people come to our rescue.”
Another victim, Mercy Emenike, who spoke amid tears, said her customers from Liberia sent her materials that she had sown 200 clothes, adding that the fire destroyed both the sown clothes and the materials.
She said, “I have nothing to do, I only look unto God and encourage myself. My God! I have lost almost a million in my shops, with cash. Three machines worth N600,000 and my generator.”
She blamed their lack of regular power supply for the fire.
“People buy fuel and store it because we work 24 hours here. If we had regular power supply, people would not store fuel and this would not have happened,” she added.
Another trader, Chijioke Oko, said he lost over a million to the fire.
“The government should come to our rescue,” he pleaded.
