Goods, wares and properties worth more than N500million belonging to about 150 traders were yesterday destroyed by fire which gutted the Ekwulobia market in Aguata local government area of Anambra state.
When journalists arrived the market scene at about 5pm yesterday thick smoke was still billowing up the sky in some parts of the market as many of the affected traders and their sympathisers were still battling to recover debris of their burnt goods.
A victim, Mr. Johnson Samuel Chetachukwu, a dealer in power generating sets and spareparts said that it was his friends who came to his house at about 4am yesterday to alert him about the fire disaster.
He lamented that all his wares went into flames and that he had just returned from market where he bought some goods to restock his shop. He said he lost over one million worth of goods.
Another trader in the market who was also affected by the fire, Mr. Titus Obiokoye narrated that the fire incident started at about 12 midnight and that he lost lost his shop and all the goods therein to the fire
Another victim Mr Obiokoye lamented, ‘When the fire started we called the fire service people in Ekwulobi, but, they refused to answers us, it was the DPO (Divisional Police Officer in charge of Ekwulobia) who now called the Awka people, but before they came fire has destroyed everywhere.
“The youth and people who brought their water tanker tried their best to quench the fire but the fire was too much”, he further narrated.
As at the time of filing this report there was no clue as to the cause of the fire incident. None of the officials of the state fire service was available for comment. And none of the traders could say what caused the fire.
