Some 10 shops were completely destroyed by a late-night fire at the Iya Maryam Adebara Complex in the Ogunpa Market area of Ibadan, Oyo State, on Monday.
The Chairman of the Oyo State Fire Services Agency, Mr Moroof Akinwande, confirmed the incident in a statement issued on Tuesday in Ibadan. He said the agency received a distress call at exactly 8:11 p.m. from the Baale of Ogunpa, Alhaji Nurudeen Lawal, reporting the outbreak of fire at the market complex.
According to Akinwande, fire service personnel were immediately deployed to the scene, where they discovered that about 10 shops out of many in the complex had already been engulfed by flames.
“Our officers swiftly got into action and prevented the fire from spreading to other shops and nearby properties, while the Federal Fire Service also joined hands with us to extinguish the fire,” he said.
The fire services boss attributed the incident to a generator that was being refueled by one of the shop occupants at the time the fire broke out.
He added that no lives were lost in the incident and commended officers of the Nigeria Police from the Iyaganku Police Headquarters for providing security and maintaining order during the firefighting operation.
