The Anambra
State Government has promised to ensure the establishment of fire service
stations in major markets across the State to avert massive loss of property in
cases of emergency fire situations.
Governor
Willie Obiano stated this yesterday while commiserating with executives and
traders of Nnewi Timber Market, Nnewi who lost property valued at millions of
Naira in a fire outbreak in the market
Over one
hundred and fifty shops were gutted by the inferno which was said to have begun
Wednesday night.
Many heavy
duty timber cutting machines, as well as multi-million Naira worth of timber
goods were consumed in the inferno which cause is yet to be established.
While
thanking God that no lives were lost, Governor Obiano said the loss is a huge
one for the State as the market is one of the major revenue windows of the
State government.
Speaking
through his Deputy, Dr Nkem Okeke, the Governor who stressed the need for the
traders in the various markets across the State to make insuring themselves and
their goods a norm, noted that with such in place, settling the cost of
emergencies occasioned by fire outbreaks will be much easier.
The Governor
further advised Ndi Anambra not to wait for government to do everything for
them, but to always assist one another especially in the midst of the economic
downturn, as according to him, government can't do everything on its own,
pointing out however, that the State government will do the much it can to help
alleviate the pains of the loss.
Earlier, the
Vice President, Anambra Traders Association, and Nnewi Market Leader, Chief
Gozie Akudolu, solicited the support of the State government and well meaning
individuals, to prevent possible reoccurrence, regretting that such fire
incidents have become an annual occurrence in the Nnew Timber Market.
While
calling for the institution of a panel of enquiry into the remote and immediate
causes of the fire outbreak, Chief Akudolu regretted that though no lives were
lost, many of the affected traders are in different hospitals due to the shock
occasioned by the of loss.
The Special
Adviser to the Governor on Efficiency and Board of Internal Revenue, Ogbuefi
Melie Onyejepu, who was on ground to receive the Governor, appreciated the
State government for coming to the immediate rescue of the traders through the
State fire service, calling on the traders whose goods and property were razed,
to take heart and brace up to start again, as the tragedy is not in itself, the
end of life.
Also on
ground to receive the Governor were the Executive members and stakeholders of
the market association, as well as a mammoth crowd of traders and sympathizers.
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