Multiple charred bodies and various degrees of injuries have been recorded from the tragedy that struck at Lagos Island’s Balogun Market in the last week of December when a fire ravaged the 25-storey Great Nigeria Insurance House plaza.
The inferno, which began at the fourth floor, spread rapidly, causing the building to collapse and trapping traders inside, including Obum Nze.
Obum, a cloth merchant based in China, is said to have returned to Nigeria for Christmas to support his wife, a trader in the market who recently delivered a baby.
The collapse happened as Obum was retrieving remaining stock from his shop behind the plaza, and a call he made shortly before his d3ath was released.
Identified on TikTok as @prettyamiy, the widow took to her Instagram page to mourn her husband. She posted a video of the last dance they had together on December 23, a day before the fire incident.
The video was captioned: “This was my last dance with my hubby on the 23rd of December and d3ath took away my source of joy, d father of my children on 24th December uwam o.”
Still on the report, Zacchaeus Afolayan, a trader at the same market revealed that Obum managed to make a phonecall from where he was trapped in the early hours of Thursday confirming that he was still alive.
He said:
“He called me around 2am, telling me that he was trapped and that others were also under the rubbles. He pleaded with me not to let him d!e, saying his children had no one else to care for them. He lives and works in China and only returns to Nigeria during festive periods to trade.”
The phone conversation was subsequently released online, sparking a loss of emotional comments.
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