The day after Christmas was meant for exchange of gifts among friends and families, but that was not to be for some Lagos residents yesterday who woke up to the defeaning sound of explosions caused by fire-crackers. There were tears, sorrow and anguish. The scene was Ojo Giwa and Okoya streets in Jankara area of Lagos Island. Goods and property worth millions of Naira were lost to the inferno. By the time the smoke subsided, one person was feared dead, 40 people were injured, five houses got burnt, five others and eight vehicles were destroyed.
There were rumours that the dreaded Islamist sect, Boko Haram, had made good its threat to attack Lagos until the state government doused the tension, saying, the explosion was caused by fire-crackers. The fire affected buildings on Ojo Giwa and Okoya streets. Soldiers, policemen, Nigerian Security and Civil defence Corps (NSCDC) operatives had a hectic time controlling the crowd that stormed the scene. The inferno which started from house No. 45, Ojo-Giwa Street, a Three-storey building, was triggered off by firecrackers warehouse in one of the shops in the building. Mr Segun Atolagbe, one of the shop owners explained how the fire started: “My shop was in 47 Ojo Giwa Street.
I sell fans and my partner sells generators. I was in the shop attending to some customers this morning (yesterday) when we saw some people passing through the street. It was around 9:00 a.m. As they were going, they were throwing up fireworks. They threw one up and it landed on the top floor of the houses. “The top floor is a warehouse where fire-crackers were stored. Then the crackers started exploding. Initially, we were hearing minor explosions from the top floor.
At a time, there was a deafening explosion. All of us downstairs thought it was a bomb blast. We all scampered for safety. Later, we came to retrieve some of our goods. Many of the shops were not opened because we are in the festive season. I have more than N2 million worth of goods in my shop. The whole building contained shops,” he said. Mr Casmir Emedike has his shop at No. 47. He stocked the place with decorative items such as artwork frames, flower vases, wall clocks and others. He got to his shop and discovered that everything got burnt.
“I was at home in Apapa when I was told about the fire. When I got here, I could not go near my shop because it has been burnt down. I have lost almost N78 million to the fire,” he lamented. Another trader, Mr. Taye Mogaji, who sells generators and grinding machines, disclosed that he took delivery of goods worth more than N5 million. According to him, he had N1.5 million worth of goods in his store before he took the new delivery. Many of the generators were burnt, electric motors, alternators, grinding machines and so on. We could not pick anything from the shop.” Mogaji recalled that the traders on Ojo Giwa Street had complained bitterly about the firecrackers before the incident: “We have been complaining that any day fire-crackers explode, they would wreak monumental havoc.
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