From Tony John Port Harcourt
Property worth millions of naira was gutted by fire at Ojoto Market located at Azikiwe/Ojoto roundabout Mile 2 Diobu Port Harcourt, in Port Harcourt City Local Government Area, Rivers State, on Thursday night.
The cause of the inferno could not be ascertained, as the market had already shut down for the day’s business activities when the incident occurred.
Speaking on the incident, the chairman of the market, Arinze Akupue, told journalists that security personnel attached to the market alerted him about the fire outbreak at about 10pm.
Akupue said he called some people around the market to assist in putting out the fire while he drove to the state fire service to informed them.
He said the state fire officers advised him to go to Federal Secretariat to inform the Federal Fire Service. But he said upon arriving at the Federal Secretariat, the federal fire officers were mandated to follow him to the scene.
He explained that on getting to the scene, the fire had destroyed 85 per cent of the property, adding that hoodlums attacked the personnel of the fire service in order to create an unconducive atmosphere to loot people’s property.
Akupue stated that it took the intervention of the Azikiwe Divisional Police headquarters to rescue the personnel of fire service while the fire completely razed the market. He said over two 200 shops were burnt down, adding that traders could not pick anything from their shops. He revealed that three of his shops were gutted by the fire and he was not able to bring out anything.
He dismissed the insinuation that people cooking in the market was responsible for the fire, even as he called on the state government to provide succour to the victims of the incident.