50 shops in Ladipo Market burnt to the ground.

This is bad. Very bad. People’s livelihoods are gone and replaced with massive debt. At a time like this!?

See what a trader told The Nation about the fire.

“The fire was caused by gas; there is a woman who cooks nearby we heard her gas was left on and that lead to the fire outbreak,” he said.Another trader, Emeka said:“We got to the shop this morning and found our things burnt; the fire started 3am this morning, we could not salvage anything. My neighbour kept N2 million in his shop but getting here it was all burnt, we picked the money and all we could feel was the ashes. The security men on duty immediately alerted fire fighters, but they arrived the scene around 6am.”

This is time for markets to have adequate fire prevention and control equipment. In fact, traders should begin to dig boreholes in the market, so that if there is a fire, the people around will have easy access to water to put it out. Also insurance should not be overlooked.

Look at Prince Ebeano shopping centre in Lekki that got burnt down the other day. It is already back. I suspect the brothers insured the place.