Inferno Engulfs Aleshinloye Market in Ibadan, Traders Lose Millions as Firefighters Arrive Late

Follow

( 0 Followers )

X

Follow

E-mail : *

Follow Unfollow

A raging fire tore through Aleshinloye Market in Ibadan on Tuesday night, leaving behind a trail of destruction as traders watched helplessly while their livelihoods went up in flames. The inferno, which reportedly started from a plastic depot, spread rapidly, consuming countless shops and reducing goods worth millions of naira to ashes.

One of the worst-hit traders, Alhaji T. Bello of TY Bello Ventures, lost everything. With ten shops completely gutted, the plastic merchant estimated her losses at over ₦50 million, describing the devastation as a nightmare she never imagined.

“Years of hard work gone in just a few hours,” she lamented.

What has sparked outrage, however, is the failure of the local fire station located within the market to respond promptly.

Witnesses revealed that firefighting equipment was unavailable, and the station had no water or trucks to combat the flames when the fire broke out around 9 PM. It wasn’t until two hours later, when the damage had already escalated, that the first responders arrived—and shockingly, it wasn’t the government fire service but Sweetco, a private company, that took action.

Chairman of the Oyo State Fire Service, Mr. Adebayo Akinwande, acknowledged the catastrophe and stated that efforts were made to contain the blaze.

Meanwhile, Ibadan Southwest Local Government Chairman, Mr. Kehinde Adeyemi, assured affected traders that the government would provide relief and support to help them recover.

As the smoke clears, traders are left devastated and demanding accountability, questioning how a market housing billions of naira in goods could lack basic fire emergency infrastructure.

The tragedy at Aleshinloye Market is yet another painful reminder of the urgent need for better fire safety measures in Nigeria’s commercial hubs.