Urges govt to make ultramodern market affordable to initial occupants

Labour Party Governorship Candidate in Lagos State in 2023, Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour, has called for an honest and transparent investigation into the fire incident in Dosumu Market.

He urged the government to ensure that its plan to build an ultramodern market in the area does not hinder the initial occupants from affording it.

Rhodes-Vivour, who stated this during a visit to the market yesterday, lamented the amount of loss occasioned by the incident.

He also lamented that the damages wouldn’t have been so much if there was proper planning, saying the state’s Central Business District should up its game.

Rhodes-Vivour called for the use of solar energy and inverters to generate power in market places instead of the commonly used tiger generators.

He said: “The situation here is very sad. Lagos Island is where I’m from, it’s where my family has their roots. So this is where my village is, this is where I was born. And it’s very sad to see the amount of loss that so many people have faced with this accident.

This is a situation where people are losing so much income at a time in Nigeria that things are hard. How are the affected people going to be compensated and bounce on their feet again, I don’t even know how that is going to be achievable. The sheer volume of loss and the scale of it is very, very painful. Very, very sad.

“These problems would have been avoided with proper city planning. It could have been avoided if the CBD or the state authorities actually were doing their job and created enough pathways for the fire services to be able to enter to exhaust the fumes. I thank the fire service for the work that they’ve done to reduce the amount of damage that was done, but proper planning would have allowed them to be more efficient.

“ Another important thing is that for a market as big as this, with so many people, we must invest in alternative energy. It does not make sense that so many small generators are littered everywhere. The pollution and danger in terms of fire is risky.

We must invest in solar power and inverters that will create a safer means of powering these communities. It was a generator accident that led to all this damage. And that generator may not cost N200,000 but it has cost us billions and this must be avoided moving forward.

“It’s in the news that the government wants to build an ultra modern market here but it’s a waste of taxpayers funds if those markets cannot be affordable by the people that were originally in these places. So whatever is going to happen here, a proper investigation must be done and must be made public.

“The government must come and see and understand the suffering that has been inflicted with the amount of loss and make it a priority that whatever plan they have is to ensure that they can lift these people back off.”