Goods and properties worth millions of Naira lost as fire guts popular Sango market in Ibadan
Goods and properties worth millions of naira were lost overnight as fire gutted the popular Sango market in Ibadan, the Oyo state capital.
The incident which occurred on Sunday, February 4, 2024, was said to have been caused by an electric spark, and over 20 shops in the market were affected.
This is coming a few days after such an incident happened at Ire Akari Estate, Soka, Ibadan.
Some shop owners affected by the incident expressed their challenges in rebuilding their shops and businesses, emphasizing that these ventures are their sole sources of livelihood.
Market traders conveyed their shock at the extensive damage caused by the fire, describing the calamity as overwhelming and unbearable.
Meanwhile, the Oyo State Government, on Friday, sealed off a branch of Christ Life Church located at Golden Estate, Oluyole in the Ibadan South-West Local Government Area of the state.
Commissioner for Environment and Natural Resources, Abdulmojeed Mogbonjubola, disclosed this in Ibadan, the state capital.
Mogbonjubola noted the action became imperative, following several unresolved steps taken by the ministry to mediate among the complainants, residents, and the church management over noise pollution.
He said, “The state government was left with no other option but to seal off the church premises to avert preventable escalations of brewing tensions between the residents and the church on Sunday.”
The commissioner stressed that officials of the ministry on receipt of several complaints from next-door residents to the church, over the incessant noise, through official letters and phone calls, visited the area, on Thursday, November 9, 2023.
“The team recorded the sound level of the church activities at intervals, starting from praise and worship, with an average reading of 74 decibels.
“The action of the church contravened the Extant Environmental Regulations of 2023, Section 58, Paragraph (b) which states that the noise limits for residential areas at daytime must not exceed 65 decibels.
“A resolution meeting was held with the parties in the ministry’s conference room on November 29, 2023, where the church refused to sign the undertaking letter, with the excuse to get approval from its headquarters and report back on Monday, December 4, 2023.
“The state government decided to seal off the church due to the continued disobedience to the regulations,” he explained.
In 2017, the Oyo State Assembly instructed the Ministry of Environment, Urban Development, and Physical Planning to penalise religious institutions violating the Noise Pollution Law.
