Patent medicine dealers at the Ariaria International Market in Aba , the commercial capital of Abia state have been sacked by flood which submerged the area.
247ureports.com gathered that drugs worth over 180m were destroyed by the ravaging flood with the Ochendo Health and Jesus is the overall zones most affected.
Sources hinted that the flood was the fall out of a heavy rain which lasted more than five hours in the commercial city.
Drug dealers at the most affected zone have been rearranging their stock, trying to see what could be salvaged, while others were erecting barriers to stop water from entering their shops.
Speaking to journalists, Chairman of Ochendo Health Zone, Longinus Ejobi described the incident as the heaviest since they started experiencing flooding in Ariaria International Market.
“Some years back, we have been suffering so much during the rainy season. If it rains, we don’t even expect to see any customer because everywhere will be flooded. So, early this year, we notified authorities of ASMATA about our plans to reconstruct our line by ourselves just to make sure that we check flooding. We do not know that even after our efforts, this kind of thing will still happen. This is the heaviest lost and damage to our goods since we started recording flood in this market.”
A patent medicine dealer who gave his name as Sam alleged that since the construction of lockup shops at the land opposite the market, the situation has become worst as the water that originally runs into the land, now settles at the market with its blocked drainages.
He called on the state government to assist the traders to check flooding in the market, lamenting that their customers no longer access the area because of the situation.
Another dealer lamented that he lost over N2million to the flood.
“The drugs were bought on credit. I came back very late from market last Saturday. I left the drugs in their cartons, hoping to arrange them on Monday. If I had known that the Saturday rain will do more harm to me this way, I would have taken the drugs to my house to offload them today. But look at the damage it has done to my goods.
“Both the drugs left on my counter and the ones inside the carton were all damaged. The loss is countless. Let government intervene and help us avoid this kind of misfortune. It is too much on us and we don’t know what will happen if this kind of rain falls again.”
