Victims’ Account: Oyo Government Displaced Aleshiloye Market Traders Months After Fire Service Left It to Burn

Everyone makes plans, but no one knows how all the plans will unfold. For Alhaja Taiwo Sekinat and hundreds of traders at Aleshiloye Market, Ibadan, that truth became a bitter reality barely five months ago, when their day ended in profit and the dawn came with a resounding throng of ashes and tears. Everything went down, including all that once gave them gains.

It was exactly 10 PM when what would later raze down millions of properties began with a small spark at a shop, Mr Abdullahi Ibrahim, one of the traders who manages a nearby shopping complex, told PIJAlance on March 29, 2025. At first, it was nothing unusual, but before it went haywire, Ibrahim and some others consulted one of the Oyo State Fire Service stations, located in the Aleshiloye market, for assistance. What followed was a stark picture of neglect and negligence.

“March 12, 2025, came with a devastating fire incident that began with just a shop around 10 p.m.,” Ibrahim recalled. “Though there’s a fire station opposite the shop where it began, there was no water. They have a borehole, but no storage tank, rendering it useless.”

The only fire station of the Oyo State Fire Service in the Aleshiloye market did not have water, so the small spark began to expand its tentacles. Ibrahim said that after a while, the fire station staff announced they would have to travel to Saki, a neighbouring community roughly 152 kilometres away, to obtain water to quench the fire. By this time, the fire had already mounted its wings on another shop. In less than an hour, one shop after another, the conflagration, aided by combustible materials, consumed several shops before it was quashed. Thanks to the efforts of external companies’ fire service agencies, who came to rescue the market from further damage.

“It was the fire services from SweetCo and Sumal Foods that brought seven tanks of water. They collaborated with the state fire team, but by then, many shops were already lost,” Ibrahim told PIJAlance.

Yemi Akinyinka, General Manager of Oyo State Fire Service, confirmed Ibrahim’s statement when he said, “We thank the management of SWEETCO for releasing their truck and men. Very massive. We are grateful to Sumal for releasing their crew to the scene. We are eternally grateful to them and SWEETCO. The management cannot respond to the individual’s questions now due to logistics.”

Akinyinka could not explicitly appreciate the State’s Fire Service Agency because they allegedly did nothing, a source noted. “See the fire centre here (at Aleshiloye market), but no water, no trucks. Nothing is working! We don’t have a government presence here; all they do is collect money and taxes from us.”

Due to the highly flammable nature of plastics, which were primarily located at the shops where the fires occurred, the fire raged fiercely. Alhaja Sekinat, a veteran trader with 35 years in the business, was among those affected. She recounted her losses, saying, “I owned eleven shops. Nine were completely razed. The fire service was right in front of us and on duty that night. Yet, they did nothing until it was too late. Even if they had no water, why didn’t they use fire extinguishers? The fire started opposite them. If they had responded promptly, it wouldn’t have spread and destroyed about 150 shops.”

The Aleshiloye Market Fire Outbreak was one of the most talked-about disastrous events around March in Oyo State. The reason is that the market is one of Ibadan’s largest and most vibrant trading hubs in the State. Yet this vibrant market was engulfed in flames, many thanks to the alleged negligence of the authorities, sources say. Popular for its wide range of goods, the market is divided into sections, including an annexe where plastic goods are sold. It was this extension that bore the brunt of the fire, leaving up to 500 shops completely burnt.

After the Fire, Came the Demolition and Displacement of Aleshiloye Market

After the fire, there were several promises made to revitalise the section of the market burnt. Unfortunately, none of the promises were fulfilled. What the traders at the market got instead was a betrayal and the threat to demolish the remaining section of the market, leaving the traders in disarray.

Traders like Alhaja Sekinat, who was among the most affected by the fire incident, began selling their wares under the scorching sun. Their situation, however, worsened when the government announced its intention to reclaim the land. Soon after, billboards emerged offering shops for lease at Aleshiloye Market, raising suspicions among traders who had yet to receive any compensation or support.

“We’ve been to the local council and the Ministry of Women Affairs to plead our case. The advert has since been taken down, but the message was clear,” Sekinat noted.

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Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State had said his Administration would restructure the Aleshinloye Market in Ibadan to avert a recurrence of a fire incident. This restructuring came with the demolition of the existing structure that was not affected by the fire incident. It was as if the state government was already waiting for a perfect time to strike.

PIJAlance reports that weeks after the fire outbreak, the Oyo State Government filed a quit notice to all the traders in Aleshiloye Market. The notice was filed through the Ibadan West Local Government Area, the LCDA where the market is located.

Though the Government had planned to rebuild Aleshiloye Market. Governor Makinde gave the traders assurance that they would not demolish the section of the market destroyed by the fire incident. But all these were just for a ruse, a source at the market told PIJAlance.

Subsequently, between the months of March to April 2025, repeated letters, adamantly insisting on demolishing the market, were served to the traders. Seeing the imminent demolition of the market, the market sellers laid out their demands for a suitable replacement to sell their goods.

In response, the Oyo State Government provided them with a meagre shop of 15 already occupied by some other traders at a place called Ladpo.

A source interviewed by PIJAlance in June, who craved for his identity to be hidden over the fear of reprisal, said, “The government (Oyo State Government) didn’t give us any space to move to. Rather, they gave us a veranda at Ladpo—a place where sellers already existed and occupied, which cannot contain even 15 of us, not even 10. They just came and destroyed everything.”

Many victims who spoke with PIJAlance expressed their dissatisfaction with the demolition, which left them with no chance of survival from the previous fire incident. Mrs Tokode, popularly known as Iya Bolarinwa, a widow and the sole breadwinner of her family, is among the victims. In an interview with PIJAlance, she expressed her struggles, noting that life has been challenging since the government has provided no support during what she described as “this difficult time.”

“It has already been burned, and we’ve lost a lot of our belongings, but we are grateful to be alive. However, it would be unfair for the government to seize our land. They should allow us to rebuild,” She emphasised, lampooning that it would be unjust to take away their land.

Mrs Tokode, who had recently invested several million naira into her shops, stated that the government had promised a compensation fee ranging from N500,000 to N1,000,000. However, though the money cannot be commensurate with the losses, the majority of the affected traders have not received any compensation.

Meanwhile, speaking on the demolition, Mrs Tokode said each shop owner was given an allocation paper that confirmed a legal transaction with the government, and they have been paying taxes on the properties every year.

“The government has not provided us with any financial assistance, despite rumours that each affected person might receive between N500,000 and a maximum of N1,000,000. They are trying to take our land. Many individuals have lost up to N20 million, so that amount of compensation would not be sufficient. Although the shops were built by the government, we purchased them ourselves, investing millions of naira. Each of us also pays an annual tenement rate ranging from N2,000 to N10,000, depending on the size of the shop,” she lamented.

 

“If they collect the land from us or help us build it, they will resell it at exorbitant prices that we cannot afford, and how do we benefit when we just lost our goods? Most of us are breadwinners in our families, and I am a widow. We beg the government to consider us ooo,” she added.

Alaga Onike (Market leader), Mrs Taiwo Lawal, refrained from extensive comments due to pressure from various quarters, but she stated their collective demands.

“We have not seen any support from the government, and I don’t have much to say, but I am pleading with the government to permit us to build our shops independently.  Though we appreciate the money they wish to give us, we prefer a go-ahead to build on the land,” she asserted.

Efforts to speak with any of the firefighters were unsuccessful, as the available officer said she is not authorised to speak, and the head of the unit was not available.  She also declined to provide the head’s contact information.

While the merchants acknowledge and appreciate the government’s proposed monetary support, their primary concern is to rebuild their businesses without interference.

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Despite Huge Budgets in 2023 and 2024, the Aleshiloye Fire Station Remained Inactive

In 2023, the Oyo State government approved the sum of N539 million for the Fire Service Agency, and in 2024, the budget rose to N1.339 billion,  making a total of N1.878 billion in 2 years. PIJAlance reviewed the State’s budget documents and found that out of this capital expenditure, N5 million was allocated in 2024 for the purchase of a power generating set (3.6 – 3.8KVA Elepaq generator) for state-wide distribution. On Nigerian online stores like Jumia and Jiji, these generators cost between N320,000 – N400,000. Using a cost estimate of N500,000 per unit, the approved N5 million will purchase six Elepaq generators.

In 2023, N200 million was earmarked for the purchase of trucks (iXtenso 4R truck-mounted aerial platform (21 meters) and over N1 billion was approved in 2024 for a similar project.

These specialised trucks are useful for fire rescue operations, including lifting personnel and mounting hoses to combat high-rise fires.  As imported equipment, their prices vary based on the brand and its specifications. A basic 12-metre iXtenso 4R truck-mounted aerial platform costs N45 million – N50 million. With the 2023 approved budget, 4 trucks could be procured. Assuming the cost rises to N60 million per unit in 2024, the budget could cover 16 trucks. But these were not the realities of fire stations in Oyo State, especially in Aleshiloye Market.

 

Roughly N119 million and N81 million were approved for the rehabilitation of firefighting equipment in Saki, Ibadan and Ogbomosho.  Despite these significant allocations, the fire service station at Aleshinloye remained inactive in 2025.

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