May 15, 2020
By Ijendu Iheaka
Some Tailors and Fashion Designers in Aba have cried to Abia government for help over a recent fire outbreak at a major tailoring and fashion design cluster at Nsulu by Mosque Street, Aba.
The tailors who spoke to our Correspondent regretted that the loss of their businesses through the fire outbreak had destroyed their livelihood and those of their defendants.
Mr. Caleb Onwuchekwa, one of the worst hit victims, said the fire incidence had left him a dead-living man having left him with nothing to start life again.
"What I personally lost here is over N8 million worth of all kinds of tailoring equipment.
“I lost eight major industrial designers machines to the fire; I lost suit buttonhole machines and shirt buttonhole machines which make up the eight Industrial Machines I lost to fire.
"I also lost some other smaller sewing machines and generators; I don't know what to do right now because I don't know how I can take care of my family in this situation that is beyond me.
"I beg government to help and rescue me because what rings in my head now is to hang myself because I can't bear this”, he cried.
Mr. Maduka Chukwu who owns a shop with his brother at the Nsulu Tailoring and Fashion Designers Cluster said the fire outbreak has reduced him and his brother to nothing.
"I don't know what led to this fire, but from what witnesses said, it could be high voltage that suddenly occurred in the night and nobody was inside the shops because there was lockdown.
"Before I could manage to get here, the whole place had burnt down and nothing was salvaged.
“We lost our four Industrial Machines, two big power generators, two small power generators, four manual sewing machines and people's clothes and clothing materials we were working on.
“If my calculations are correct, what we lost here is over N4 million”, he lamented.
Mr. Godwin Iheme, President of Association of Tailors and Fashion Designers (ATFAD), regretted the plights of his members affected by the fire incident stressing that it had thrown the association into mourning.
"I'm not happy about what happened to my colleagues here at Nsulu by Mosque Street; millions of naira were lost to fire.
"We are over 50,000 tailors in ATFAD and accommodation has been our problem for many years.
“Most of us work close to open drainages which is hazardous to our health; our terrible situation must get to our governor whom you know believes in Aba artisans and I believe our conditions must change with the Commissioner’s visit to this site”, he said.
Mrs. Loveth Adimoha, the Abia Commissioner for Arts, Culture and Tourism,
who earlier paid a commiseration visit to the site, sympathized with the victims and promised to report their situation to Governor Okezie Ikpeazu.
Adimoha who moved round the Nsulu Cluster lamented that the site was not befitting for the fashion designers who are major stakeholders in Abia's SME business projects.
She assured that all the complaints brought to her by ATFAD about their working environment which she had seen herself, would reach the governor whom she described as a friend of Abia tailors.
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