Traders who lost their shops in the late Tuesday night gas explosion in the Iju Ishaga area of Lagos State have lamented the misfortune that befell them.
The traders, who claimed to have lost millions of naira to the inferno, stated that the explosion started from a gas truck that had come to offload gas in the area.
An electrical parts dealer, Daniel Eze, claimed to have lost about ₦50,000,000 (fifty million naira) to the late Tuesday night inferno. The trader lamented, “I am finished. Who will bail me out? When I heard that fire was burning our shops, I didn’t envisage that it would touch mine because my shop is on the other side of the road.”
He added, “I just rushed down to sympathize with my colleagues, but when I arrived at the scene, I saw the unimaginable.”
The trader also stated, “My shop was completely razed down. I could not remove a pin from my shop. I am calling on the government to come to our rescue because some of us will go back home or become beggars on the street.”
A cream seller, who identified herself as Elizabeth, also claimed to have lost about ₦13,000,000 (thirteen million naira) to the incident. The woman trader said, “I mix cream and sell for people. The least cream that I sell is N5,000. I have the cream of N25,000. I have the one of N50,000. The worst is that I just stocked my market.”
She continued, “I lost over N13 million. I had closed from the shop, locked up my shop, and I was hoping for today (Valentine’s day) to hook up with my customers who said they would come early today.”
“My brother, see what has befallen me and my other colleagues? This is just the beginning of the year. It is too early to start a year with such a tragedy,” she lamented.
A resident of the area, Samuel Afolabi, noted that more houses and shops would have been destroyed in the inferno but for the quick intervention of the management of the filling station. The resident stated that the attendants and other workers at the filling station quickly deployed fire extinguishers to the scene.
Another resident of the area, Michael Ndubuisi, said, “We thought that it was war. I live opposite the gas shop where the fire started, but I was already in my room preparing to go to bed when I started hearing the sound of explosives.”
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He added, “I ran out of my house, and I was running when I saw other people running too. The road was full of confusion. It was after some time that I was able to figure out what really happened.”
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