Date: 2021-05-15

The Iyaloja of Oro land, Kwara State, Alhaja Mulikatu Jimoh, speaks to TUNDE OYEKOLA about a recent fire outbreak which destroyed about 30 shops in the Oro Central Market

What is your name?

My name is Alhaja Mulikatu Jimoh. I am the Iyaloja of Oro kingdom (Kwara State).

When did you become the Iyaloja?

I was installed as the Iyaloja in 2015. I have been in the market selling yam tubers since my youthful days.

What can you say about the recent fire outbreak at the Oro Central Market?

How the fire started is known only to God because we were not in the market the day the fire incident happened. The market opens every five days and Monday, when the fire incident happened, was not a market day. The market was to open the following day, Tuesday.

On that Monday, it was the chairman of the transporters'union that called and broke the news to us. He said the market had been engulfed in fire.

When I got to the market, I met several people trying to put out the fire. Some people were calling the fire service while others went to the College of Education to hire a water tanker because the water in the two tanks of the borehole provided by the Federal government for the market had been exhausted. The fire could not be put out until the arrival of the fire service men, who came from Ilorin.

Is there no fire service station in Oro?

No; there is no fire service station in Oro.

How many shops were burnt?

I learnt the shops that were affected were not less than 30. The fire mostly affected the stalls of yam sellers, yam flour shops, food vendors and farm tools sellers.

Can you estimate the worth of the goods lost to the fire?

I cannot quantify the goods destroyed in the inferno but the destruction was much.

Had been any previous fire outbreak in the market?

Yes, there had been some previous fire incidents in the market. Such fire outbreaks happened during the dry season. But none of the previous fire outbreaks was as much as this last one in terms of magnitude.

Is the market union doing anything to assist the victims of the fire incident?

We have not done anything other than pray for those who were affected. The state governor has come. He promised that he would do something for the victims. The governor expressed surprise about the size of the market; he said he didn't know that the market was that big.

So, we are looking forward to what the government would do because it is our belief that the fire incident would bring an improvement to the market.

Does the market have a cooperative union where the traders keep some of their money?

No, we don't have any cooperative union in the market but when the governor came on the sympathy visit he assured us that the government would work out loans for the traders and that is what we are looking forward to.