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- Strange fire destroys alternative market
From Femi Folaranmi, Yenagoa
Barely 24 hours after media reports on the neglect of the new market site of the popular Tombia Market in Yenagoa, Governor Douye Diri has undertaken an unscheduled visit to the new market site located off the Tombia-Amassoma Road to see things for himself.
Diri had stopped his convoy over the weekend to address the traders at the new market site where he assured them of an upgrade of the environment.
The traders had in separate interviews told members of the Federated Correspondents’ Chapel of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Bayelsa State Council, during a tour of the new market site, that they had not been making sales since the government forced them to evacuate the old market site on February 11, 2024.
The aggrieved traders, while lamenting that Diri had betrayed them after they voted for him in the governorship election, threatened to stage a protest if the Diri-administration continued to be insensitive to them and the environment of the new market site.
It was observed that the new market site, which is located in a marshy environment that is prone to massive flooding, has a small part of it sand-filled for the traders to set their tables and display their wares, while a large portion has not been sand-filled.
The government forcibly relocated the traders to the new market site about three days to the second-term inauguration of Diri and his deputy, Lawrence Ewhrudjakpo, on February 14, as the road houses the state’s airport through which invited guests would drive to grace the event.
Speaking on their challenges, the chairman of Okutukutu/Etegwe Market, Alhaji Dahiru Yauketi, complained that the government did not prepare the new market site properly before hurriedly relocating them.
“The government allocated this place for us and relocated us from the former market. Government has not finished preparing this present place, but all of us agreed to come. Secondly, the government did not finish the road to this market. Customers are not coming to this (new) market place. We come here every morning but can’t sell anything”, he said.
Meanwhile another market known as Alakeme market which had served as an alternative for traders that shun the new market has been gutted by a strange fire.
Sources said the fire which razed all the stores overnight was the handiwork of those that want the traders to relocate to the new site provided by the government.
The extent of damage is yet to be ascertained but the traders have reported the matter to the Police to probe the circumstances surrounding the fire incident.
