— 15th December 2017
…As traders pelt Okorocha with sachet water
From George Onyejiuwa, Owerri
The Auto
parts market popularly known as New market, Owerri, Imo State, was
gutted by fire late Wednesday night, less than 48 hours to the
expiration date for the demolition of the market by the state
government.
Earlier that Wednesday afternoon,
Governor Rochas Okorocha, had gone to the market to remind the traders
that they must vacate the market before Friday December 15 when the
demolition exercise would commence.
However, on sighting Governor Okorocha
and his demolition team coming with bulldozers, the irate traders
started booing him and hurled sachet water on him and his team.
Apparently angered by the attitude of the traders, he ordered that a
ditch be dug at the entrance of the market by Douglas road to ensure
that the market would not be accessed by any vehicle.
When our Reporter visited the market yesterday morning, it was discovered that the midnight inferno destroyed a large section of the market as some traders bemoaned their loses.
A trader, Daniel Joshua, told
Daily Sun that he was lucky as he had already removed all his wares
from the shop following the two weeks demolition notice handed down to
the traders at the market.
According to him, “ I have already
removed my goods from the shop, because we have been told by the
governor that the market would be demolished on 15 December and even
when we pleaded with him to give us more time he refused.
He added, “those who were affected by the
fire were those who had not been able to remove their goods from their
shops. But we were surprised about the fire outbreak because nobody
could actually say what ignited the fire in the middle of the night “.
Ikechukwu Ibe, who deals in car batteries was not that lucky as he had not finished packing out his wares before the fire gutted his shop destroying everything.
“I only managed to pack out my goods from
the first shop because I have two shops. I still had goods at the
second shop and I have not finished. When I was informed that fire had
burnt a section of the market and my own shop was among.”
Some of the traders accused Owerri Youths of setting the market on fire.