Three houses and four shops were Thursday destroyed by fire in Abeokuta, the Ogun state capital.
The buildings and shops were few metres away from Ogun state Fire Service, located in Ijemo area of the state.
The fire incident, according to an eye witness, started from one of the buildings in the area and later spread to the others.
The eyewitness explained that the fire started around 1am on Thursday before the residents of the buildings alerted men of the state fire service.
It took the men of fire service about three hours before they could put out the fire.
The cause of the fire could not be ascertained as of the time of filing this report.
One of the victims of the inferno, Nurudeen Olaleye, disclosed that he lost his university, law school, call to bar, birth and other professional certificates to the fire and appealed to the state government to come to their aid by cushioning the effects of their loss.
He said, “I don’t live here, it was in the middle of the night that I was called upon that the house had been razed by fire. Several efforts were made to call men of the fire service but it took about three hours before the fire service could put off the fire. That was why the impact of the fire is this much.
According to him, “Many residents of the houses and shops lost valuables worth millions of naira. I also lost valuable items too.”
“I lost my certificates which I kept in my room. My birth certificate, university certificate, law school certificate and other certificates were lost to the fire incident.”
Another victim of the incident, Kudrat Olaipupo, lamented that she left her shop last night but was informed of the incident the following morning.
“I got here and everything is gone. I couldn’t even take anything out. Only God knows what happened. We are appealing to government to assist us. This is where we get money to feed.”
