The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) House of Representatives candidate for Ilorin West/Asa Federal Constituency, Alhaji Ibrahim Mohammed Ajia, weekend, donated five industrial fire extinguishers to Alanamu Market to serve as preventive measures against fire outbreak.
Blueprint recalled that fire gutted the market in July this year with property worth millions of naira destroyed.
The market was however recently reopened to continue normal daily business transaction.
Addressing scores of market women, who gathered to welcome him shortly after he handed over the fire extinguishers to market women; Ajia said that having known the cause, he decided to provide the market with safety devices, to avert future fire disaster.
He added when such markets were built, it is also very important to put preventive measures in place to guard against such occurrence in the future.
Ajia, who is also the founder of Mohammed Ajia Ibrahim (MAI) foundation and a security expert said that his support for the victims and the market have no political boundary or affiliations rather it was meant to promote economic wellbeing of the people.
“I am here in Alanamu market to commiserate with the good people of the community irrespective of their political affiliation or alliances over the fire incident that occurred sometime.
“I was not around when it happened but the delegates I sent studied the situation and based on findings I feel that in the market we should have some safety procedures and that is why I am donating industrial fire extinguishers to Alanamu market today so that in case we have problem like this which we don’t pray for; we have something to curb the fire.
“And today I also use this opportunity to call on our mothers, the youth and our fathers to unite ahead of 2023 general elections.
“The reason why we are running for offices is because of people, thus, we should not divide them because of our ambitions So, I preach peace to our people and that we must be united. I pray to Almighty Allah to make us a united family.
“Politicians must be held accountable and voters must exercise their franchise wisely in the forthcoming election for the betterment of our state and the country at large”, he said.
The philanthropist, who had been supportive to the people of the state in terms of health, education and welfare; assured that personnel would be deployed to fix the fire extinguishers in strategic places around the market and at the palace of Balogun Alanamu for accessibility and proper usage.
Earlier, the Balogun Alanamu of Ilorin emirate, Dr. Usman Atolagbe Abubakar, appreciated the gesture as he prayed God Almighty to continue to bless the donor and grant him his heart desire.
“We sincerely appreciate you for the support, and I pray Allah to continue to enrich you. The fire extinguisher will be judiciously utilised, although, we don’t pray for fire outbreak again but as we have this now, we have adequate preventive measure and will be protected,” he said.