Ihiala mysterious market fire disaster; sympathisers continue to visit scene

www.odogwublog.com reports that sympathisers have continued to storm the Nkwo Ogbe market, Ihiala, Ihiala Local Government Area, Anambra State, where mysterious fire reportedly gutted  about 100 lock-up shops last Sunday with the latest

sympathizers being the Oluoha-elect of Ihiala, Azuka Alagwu, who

pleaded to the victims to take heart.

Addressing them over the gross loss of wares worth millions of naira

to the inferno, the Oluoha-Elect said, "I am here to commiserate with

the traders over the fire disaster, I feel said about it and it is an

opportunity to also meet the owners of the shops. It was really a very

serious thing that happened, wares were destroyed, it was very sad".

The incident, which started about 3pm last Sunday and continued up to

Monday morning, he stated, has caused a lot of damage before the

arrival of fire service men from Nnewi.

"By the time fire service men arrived from Nnewi, the local boys who

were trying to help fight the fire could not do much, the damage has

been done already, millions of naira gone", he stated.

On worth of damages done by the inferno he added that, "I was not able

to count the number of shops affected but they could be up to 100

shops"

He however pledged to meet with the relevant authorities that included

LEMA, state and Federal Governments with a view to ameriorating their

problems.

He commended Governor Willie Obiano for his infrastructural

development of the state stating that he is optimistic that the state

Government will rebuild the market for them.

He attributed the gross loss of wares to lack of spacing of the

buildings in the market poniting out that, "one thing i found out is

the setting, the buildings were so close to themselves, not well laid

out, not well planned and this will always be part of the magnitude of

the fire disaster".

He lamented the lack of provision of functional fire service station

that is equipped with vehicles, pumping machines and gadgets in an

urban area like Ihiala that is fast developing.

On cause of the inferno he revealed that "it might be that the cause

was that they went home after the last Saturday's business without

switching off their light"

In his contribution, a chieftain in the community, Chief Jude

Mbadinuju, (alias Ogbuefi Nnanyelugo) urged the state Government to

come to the rescue of the traders.

He said, "we are asking Governor Willie Obiano to kindly help us

provide fire fighting equipments", lamenting that millions of naira

worth of wares were lost to the inferno.

In their various remarks, the President General of Umuatubuhe

community, Prince Christian Kennedy, (alias Dikedioha Mma) and Nzeh

Igboaka Ethelbert, stressed the need for the provision of functional

fire fighing equpments and assistance to the traders.

They expressed optimism that the state government would rebuild the

burnt Nkwo Ogbe market for the traders describing the fire incident as

very unfortunate.