Harmattan season, especially the month of December is usually when traders selling vehicles and automobile spare parts in Abia State enjoy huge patronage from residents of the state and neigbouring Southeast and South-south states.
As the rain subsides, people fix their cars ahead of possible trips to their country homes, making the market to be busy. That was the expectations of the traders before a mysterious fire dashed their hope. SUNNY NWANKWO writes on how the inferno last Sunday ravaged the popular market and threatened the continued existence of the traders in the market.
Many residents of Aba, the commercial capital of Abia State at the height of the rainy season, prayed fervently for the dry season to set in. The reason is that the dry season provides them temporary relief from the anguish that they go through while using some of the roads; both state and federal, on a daily basis to access their business premises and homes.
A lot of car owners would rather park their vehicles to use public transportation than risk driving their cars during the rainy season.
Those who dared the rainy season always end up visiting mechanics often to get their cars fixed. This accounts for the reason some residents who do not have the resources to visit mechanic workshops very often stay off the roads during the rainy season.
It is unarguable that there are usually more vehicles on the road in Aba during the dry season than during the rainy season as the dry weather would have dried up waterlogged and swampy areas of the city center and villages on the suburbs, giving way for some of the car owners to drive the cars that they had hitherto left covered in their various homes without fears that the cars could quickly develop fault.
As this year’s dry season drew nearer and having understood their business, some traders went out of their way to borrow money to stockpile goods ahead of the anticipated rush of customers during the festive period.
Located in Ugwunagbo Local Government Area of Abia State, on the Alaoji stretch of the every-busy Enugu-Aba-Port Harcourt expressway, Nnentu Spare Parts; one of the biggest spare parts markets in the Southeast is one of the markets in the state that generate huge Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) for the state government.
Like the beautiful bride that is being sought after, Nnentu Spare Parts Market, apart from meeting the motor hardware needs of both private and commercial motorists in the state, also plays host to visitors from other parts of the Southeast and South-South states that throng the market daily in search of motor parts for both old and new brand of cars.
It is a market that provides food on the tables of both shop owners and middlemen, including many others who depend on the market to meet their individual needs.
While some of the traders were already making plans on how they were going to celebrate their Christmas with their family members, a few weeks to the Christmas celebration, they never knew what was lying ahead.
On Sunday, December 17, at about 2pm, came the sad news for some of the traders of B line, Asa Nnentu Spare Parts Market that about thirty shops were on fire.
One of the traders was said to have just offloaded two fully loaded 40 feet containers of engine parts less than 48hrs before the fire incident.
According to information, part of the money the man used for the purchase of the said motor parts was part of the advance paid to him by customers, money borrowed from the bank and his personal money.
This is coming five years after a similar incident happened in another part of the market; where an inferno engulfed 12 shops at a time like this.
It was gathered that the situation would have been more devastating if not for the planned grading of the line which serves as a major entry into the market, where the leadership of the line directed members to remove the vehicles parked along the line to give way for the grading work that would have commenced the same Sunday.
The cause of the fire incident at the time of filing the report was yet to be established, but our correspondent gathered that it took the efforts of the fire servicemen from Umuahia, the state capital, to arrest the situation and stop the fire from getting to other shops in the market.
The incident has raised the call from concerned citizens for the traders to insure their shops against such an unfortunate incident.
One of the victims, Mr. John Abaturu, a Volkswagen parts dealer who has been in the market for about 40 years and whose three shops were affected, said that he was on his way to Uyo, Akwa Ibom State when he got a call that his shop was on fire.
According to him, “I aborted the journey and started coming back to Aba only for me to see all the goods in my shops in pieces; they have all gone in the flames.
“As it is now, my life is in disarray. All my plans have been shattered. I lost not less than N25m in this fire incident.
“I have been in this market for 40 years. I have never seen a fire incident of this magnitude. I am begging the governor of the state, Dr. Alex Otti and well-meaning Nigerians to come to our aid. All that I have laboured over the years were all gone in the inferno. I am confused. I don’t know what to do.
How am I going to feed my family? They should please come to our rescue. This is heavy for me to bear.”
Another affected trader, Sabinus Olisa Agonike, the CEO Sabisan Motor Nigeria Limited, said that all the goods in five of his warehouses were burnt in the inferno.
Sabinus said he was sleeping after coming back from the church when at about 3:30, he got a call that the market was on fire.
“My wife brought my phone to me while I was sleeping. When I checked who was calling, I noticed that it was a neighbour. I thought that it was the usual fire that comes from the burrow pit which we usually quench. I didn’t know that my shop was affected.
“I lost over N250m in the fire incident. We are begging the government to come to our aid because the cost is too much for me and others to bear. Let them come and assist us as much as they can.”
The Commissioner for Trade and Commerce, Dr. Chimezie Ukaegbu, who visited the market in the company of the DG Greater Aba Development Agency (GADA), Uche Ukeje, sympathized with the victims.
They said that they were in the market at the instance of the governor, who asked them to come and have firsthand information about the incident and to also reassure them that the state government sympathizes with them over their loss.
Ukaegbu and Ukeje while commending personnel of the state fire service for their efforts, called on the traders to be cautious with their activities in the market.
They assured that they were going to meet and interact with the governor over their plight and expressed optimism that the governor whom they described as a listening father of the state would come to their rescue.
However, a social commentator, Mr. Gilbert Ofoegbu has harped on the need for traders to insure their businesses against accidents and misfortunes like fire disasters.
Ofoegbu, who noted that the market has had a history of fire incidents called on the state government and market leaders to ensure that their members have fire extinguishers in their shops.
He, however, called on the state government to ensure that the fire service outfit in the state is operational and their operational vehicle readily available to respond to fire incidents.
While also calling for improved manpower and more firefighting trucks, he urged the state government to ensure that the personnel undergo training in line with global best practices of firefighting and to also provide them with safety gears.
“The governor should take a trip to the fire service in Aba. It is a sorry sight.
“How can they be sharing their compound with a mechanic workshop?
“How can a state fire service not have a functional borehole? How do you explain that during fire incidents, they will be going to companies around to get water?
“How do you explain that sometimes diesel finishes in their vehicle when they are going to attend to fire incidents?
“A city as important as Aba should not have just a truck, but functional trucks. That’s how bad it is in Aba and that shouldn’t be our story. The only truck there is being overstretched and if it goes down, it means that Aba is gone at any outbreak of fire.”
