Oyo State governor, ‘Seyi Makinde, has said that his administration will restructure Alesinloye Market in Ibadan to prevent a recurrence of the fire incident which occurred in March and destroyed goods worth millions of Naira.
Speaking on Tuesday, April 1, during an on-the-site inspection of the market, the governor said that the state government has provided some sort of palliatives to serve as immediate cushion for those affected by the fire incident.
Governor Makinde, in a statement by his Special Adviser (Media), Dr Sulaimon Olanrewaju, also described the inability of the fire station in the market to put out the fire as sad.
He maintained that the government would work on the market with a view to putting in place a proper architecture that could avert future fire incidences.
Governor Makinde equally ordered the suspension of the planned demolition of a section of the market until a proper alternative has been provided for traders.
He added that the state government, the Ibadan South-West Local Government and the Ibadan South LCDA would work on cushioning the effect of the fire incidents on traders in the next few days.
The governor said: “There are two things out there: One is to organise the market itself, because right there where the fire broke out, there is a fire station, but they could not stop the fire.
“So, we have to ensure that we do whatever is necessary to make sure the fire station is functional.
“Two, there is a place that the local government is going to demolish and I have told the chairman that the place should not be demolished until an alternative is provided for the people.
“We will be working on that together within the next few days so that we can cushion the impact of the fire incident on the people.
“We have provided some palliatives for them and I told them too that we have to work together to ensure that this kind of thing does not happen again.
“We have to enlighten the people. It is better to avoid anything that can lead to fire incident than to curtail it. So, the advocacy should be that people should store things, especially things that have the potential to get burnt, with utmost caution.”
