FIRE RAZE LAGOS SLUM

Thousands of slum dwellers at the Otto_Ilogbo Extention, Ifesowapo Community at Ebute-Metta area in Lagos State have been rendered homeless following an early morning  inferno on Wednesday.

Though no live was lost but more than fifty wooden  houses were razed with property worth millions of naira destroyed .

The residents said a housewife lit a candle over night which burnt her  wooden apartment and spread to other houses.

When our correspondent visited the area, she saw residents savaging their property, while  others were weeping .

The chairman of the community , Mr. Musbau Agbodimu said his house and the only primary school in the community was razed by the fire.

“I was not at home when the fire started. I was busy monitoring our members in the vigilante group providing security in the community  but about 2.30am, I got a call that fire was raging in the community. I rushed back home but the inferno was too much; We organised members of the commu nity and started quenching the fire. I quickly made a call to the fire service but before they arrived, the houses have been razed. More than eighteen landlords were affected. The only school in the community was also razed. More than ninety pupils cannot go to school now because of this fire. I wept when I saw the extent of destruction. We have invested more than a million naira to get the school to start but everything has been destroyed. . One of the residents is hysterical now as the fire burnt the N300, 000 he got as loan from a friend.  We cannot quantify what we have lost yet . We are still counting our losses. Right now our major concern is to find a place to sleep”

A victim of the inferno, one Alhaji Moroof Bello the pastor of a church in the community said he and other worshippers escaped the fire by the whiskers.

“We were having night vigil when suddenly we saw the fire. We ran out of the church but the fire was raging. We learnt that a house wife left a lit candle on her generator and the fire burnt everything. We rushed to quench the fire but it was too much. We called the fire service but they arrived two hours after. The fire destroyed sixteen guest rooms, TV, radios, fans, clothes and other valuables were affected. We were lucky to survive this fire.”

Another resident Mr.  Paul Njoku decried the incessant fire outbreak in the community.

“This should be like the 5^th times fire is destroying our houses. My two new generators, fan, TV and other household goods were burnt. My family and I are homeless and we don’t know where to sleep this night. This fire is too much and we need help to start our lives again”

A woman, Mrs. Nkechi Ikechukwu wept as she narrated how the fire razed her house.

“I don’t know where to go with my children. I lost almost everything and I am going to start from the scratch. I don’t even know where to start from”

Mr. Agbodimu appealed to the government to come to their rescue.

“This place is not decent for any human to live but since there are no affordable houses for the masses, we just have to live in this slum. We have appealed to the government to come to our aid. We are also using this medium to appeal to government to come to the aid of the electorates. These are the poor in the society the government has sworn to help so they should come and provide decent houses for the people who are struggling and living from hand to mouth.”  

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