The Ogbe-Ijoh Market in Warri metropolis of Delta State has over the years become as famous for incessant fire as for the volume and quality of fresh fish, periwinkle and food stuff sold by local traders in there.
Niger Delta Report checks revealed that the popular market, located on the fringe of the Warri River has been gutted by fire at least five times in the past four years.
Traders and shop-owners who invested in GSM telephones do so not just to make calls to loved ones and friends, but to monitor activities in the market when they retire home every night.
Those who made the investment in GSM telephone set saw the benefit again on Saturday night when they got the most dreaded call, once again that ‘Ogbe-Ijoh Market is on fire’.
Unfortunately for some, the ownership of telephone did not prevent their shops from being razed because, although they got the alert that the market was on fire, when they arrived the scene, there was nothing left to savage.
Mrs. Roseline Hitler was one of those who arrived the scene shortly after the fire broke out, but like dozens of ill-fated traders, her effort to rescue her ware of smoked fish and other items was too little and too late.
“I lost goods worth over N400,000 today,” she told reporters amidst sobs.
Another trader, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said she was heavily indebted from the lost she suffered in the last fire incident. “I am only beginning to pay off the loans I took from my cooperative to start my life again when this fire started again.”
Eyewitness’ accounts of the incident revealed that the fire started from a section of the market which comprised of makeshift stalls and brick shops. The area was one of those that was destroyed when a similar fire swept through the market in 2008.
However, it was gathered that the swift response of fire fighters from the nearby Zonal Office of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), halted the growing spread of the fire to adjourning stalls, shops and houses located close to the market.
Although the cause of this latest fire was yet unknown at the time of this report, aggrieved traders and leaders of Ogbe-Ijoh Kingdom are alleging foul play.
The Chairman of Ogbe-Ijoh Governing Council, Hon. Lucky Clement Oromoni said the incessant fire incidents at the market was cause of concern, not only for traders but for the community leaders.
He hinted of conspiracy and arson by “people envious of the popularity of the market”, adding that the market’s identity, Ogbe-Ijoh Market is envied by some other groups. The envy, he posited was a cause for suspicion that the market was torched.
Speaking in the same vein, Chairperson of the market, Madam Queen Ajemitolu, invited the state government to set up a committee to carry out holistic investigation to unravel the incessant fire outbreaks in Warri markets.
However, experiences over the past years also suggested that such fires are the handiwork of hoodlums and arsonists who hide under the guise of helping to put off the fire to loot shops.
Traders in the market where household items, building materials, fish, cloth and clothes, shoes and other sundry items are sold are believed to have lost goods worth millions of naira to the latest inferno.
Mrs. Ajemitolu equally called on government to assist the embattled traders, saying experiences of the past when government officials “would just come and go without doing anything for us” was not acceptable
She asked for soft loans so that the market women could get back to business while appealing for security to be reinforced around the market to deter hoodlums who are prime suspects in the incessant fire outbreaks.
For his part, Comrade Austin Ozobo of the Ijaw Peoples Development Initiative advised the state government to expedite action on the completion of the Ogbe-Ijoh market.
He also called for a thorough overhaul of the fire service in Warri and its environs to enable it tackle fire outbreak and attendant loss of property and means of livelihood.
