Moshood Adebayo, Lagos
Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu has ordered a full-scale investigation into the cause of the fire incident the gutted the popular Amu Plank Market in Mushin area of the state.
The Governor, who gave the order when he visited the market that was razed by fire on Friday, allayed the fears of the traders that the government would take over the market.
He assured the victims of the fire incident, which gutted about eleven houses and goods worth over 10 billion, of his administration’s assistance, adding that the government will help to rebuild the market.
The traders who spoke at separate interviews appealed to the Governor to support them to go back to their businesses and help in rebuilding the market.
Sanwo Olu, who was accompanied by his deputy, Dr Femi Hamzat, and members of his cabinet, said relevant government authorities have been mobilised to take inventory of the situation and report back to his office.
The Governor, who lamented the huge losses recorded in the market inferno, said: “This is a rather very unfortunate incident, nobody ever imagined this amount of destruction to happen in this market. We will also further start a full investigation into the remote causes of this fire incident so that we can plan in future how to forestall incident like this.
“After the Lagos State Emergency Agency (LASEMA) and other agencies have finished their physical process we will come back with Ministry of Physical Planning to take inventory of the various store owners in this place and also sit with our market leaders to see what kind of lasting solution that we can bring about in markets like this.”
“We will do enumeration of the houses affected by the fire incident. Then the government will go back and see what support it can render. We thank God that it is only goods that were lost, no life was lost. Because we cannot equate the life of anybody to any amount of goods and services,” the Governor said.