Over 150 shops burnt at Nkwo Ngwa Market fire in Aba

November 18, 2018 

By Ijendu Iheaka

Fire Saturday night razed about 156 shops at the timber and furniture section of Nkwo Ngwa market in Aba South local government area leaving many families grieving for their losses.

Okechukwu Lawrence, chairman of the market traders association told newsmen at the market on Sunday that he got a phone call at about 7:00 pm on Saturday informing him of the fire prompting him to race to the scene.

He said he rushed to the market on getting the information where he and the market taskforce members broke its gates to take in sympathizers to help quench the fire using borehole water.

“We tried our best before the Fire Service came in. We used our borehole to get water to quench the fire but the hoodlums around here later broke the borehole in their bid to steal our pump while the fire was raging.

“That was how I saw it yesterday. The fire was too much and it gulped millions of Naira worth of goods and properties here.

“We have some building material sellers on all these front shops. The second row of shops is furniture sellers and other things.

“We recorded a very big loss here but there was no loss of life or injury”, he said.

He debunked claims that his members attacked the fire service personnel who came to quench the fire.

Lawrence said that it was a group of hoodlums called Aroo Boys who attacked the fire service men.

He said the Aroo Boys further entered the market, broke doors carried rice, stockfish, clothes and other people’s properties and left.

He said they could have stopped the fire with Fire Service help before it destroyed up to 100 shops but were hindered by Ozuomba road which the government suspended work on two years ago.

He appealed to the government to come to their aid, help them by fix the road and to attend to the needs bothering them in the market.  

The Abia State Police Commissioner, Chris Ezeike who visited the scene Sunday morning said he came on a visit to access and sympathize with the victims of the fire.

He noted that that zone of the market was full of materials easily susceptible to fire outbreaks.

Ezeike however called for calm and peace adding that the fire which was said to have been started by a generating set would be investigated immediately to find its cause.

  

Rtd Captain Awa Udonsi, Senior Special Adviser to Governor Okezie Ikpeazu on Security, said that the governor had been notified about the incident and would involve the concerned ministries.

Udonsi said he would not take decisions for the governor but assured that the government would “do the right thing” in the situation