Affected traders and marketers in Balogun Market, on Martin Street, Lagos, have sent a letter of appeal to Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu of and the state House of Assembly, on the need to investigate the constant fire incidents in the market.
The marketers, who stormed the Lagos State House of Assembly in their large numbers on Friday, alleged that a trader in the market and owner of Brassas Fabric, Mrs. Fausat Fesugboyi has been a major factor behind the recurring fire incidents and boasting of having government backing.
According to them, the fire incident usually starts from the complex that houses her stores and extends to other buildings, thus wreaking havoc on their goods and items.
In a letter addressed to Governor Sanwo-Olu by the Association of Traders 39/41 Martins Street entitled; “Re-The Fire Incident of Property At No. 43 Martins Street, Lagos Owned By Mrs. Fausat Fesugboyi (Brassas Fabric), dated October 14, 2022 and signed by their Chairman, Mr. Mbachu Chibuzo, the traders urged the Governor to come to their aid and investigate the fire incidents immediately to prevent future occurrence.
The affected traders, in the letter, stated that’ “ We are the Association of Traders at No. 39/41 Martins Street, Lagos Island, Lagos State.
“We are mindful of the right to our property as guaranteed by the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. But this right is not to infringe other people’s right to life, to commute and engage in legal business amongst others.
“The fire incident of the property above is a misery because the property always gets burnt every other year. For instance, the property got burnt in the following years to wit: 2017, November 2018, 11th October, 2019 and the recent occurrence was on 9th October, 2022.
‘The frequent inferno of the property, which the owner, Mrs. Fausat Fesugboyi ought to put an end to but did not, and her non-challant attitude made our members and other citizens around the vicinity lost their business and sustained various degree of health issues.
“As a group of persons affected seriously, we intend not to cause breach of public peace and we therefore appeal to your good office to investigate this frequent occurrence of the fire disaster and nib the issue in the bud.”
Mbachu, said in an interview with journalists that the fire incident has been happening over10 years, and that he has been in the market for 14 years.
He said that the building housing Brassas Fabric gets burnt every two and half years and that it has become a problem and disturbance to the community.
Mbachu continued: “After the incident, she would brag that the government cannot do anything for her. I lost N9 million in 10 minutes, when her building got burnt in 2019, and so many of our people have gone back to their villages because they could not sustain paying for rents at Balogun Market because of the incidents.
“We call on the Lagos State Government to come to our aid. One person cannot be bigger than the government. She was sent away from two places before she got to that place. We don’t want to lose our business again. We were able to quench the fire incident on Sunday October 9 before it got out of hand.
“We are pleading with the Lagos State Government to come to our aid. We want them to help us and look into the matter. We are young people and one person who has made it cannot come and rubbish us.
“She always said that she would call the Governor and that nothing would happen to her. That was why we came to lay our grievances to the state government. We are begging them to investigate the matter very well so that another one would not happen,” he said.
Another trader in the market, Mrs. Funmilayo Margaret Ekpe said amidst tears that Brassas Fabric should beg God so that the fire incident would not happen again, claiming that she lost goods worth about N2 million to the latest incident.
While calling on the state government to assist them, Ekpe revealed that she lost goods worth about N10 million to the 2019 fire incident in the market.
“I am 61 years old, I need help. Some northerners looted our goods, while they were putting out the fire on Sunday. I sell ready-made adults and children clothes imported from Vietnam, United States of America and Turkey,” she said.
This was corroborated by another trader, Mrs. Juliet Ukwu, who lamented that she lost items worth N3 million to the fire incident, adding that the constant fire incident has impoverished many traders in the market and sent some back to the village.
Addressing the protesters along with other lawmakers in the state house of assembly, Moshood Oshun, representing Lagos Mainland 2, promised that the petition would be submitted to the Speaker of the House, Mudashiru Obasa for appropriate action assuring that the matter would be investigated.
“We will work on the petition and for now whatever you said about her is an allegation, but justice would be done in due course.
“We don’t want any house to get burnt in Lagos. Let us maintain peace for now. We will do our investigations properly. We encourage fire insurance in Lagos State for things like this, and nobody has a right to destroy anyone’s property,” he said. (Vanguard)