From Uche Nnorom, Makurdi
Sunday 5th February 2012 was indeed a sad day for traders of Otukpo market as scores of shops went up in flames leaving in its wake bitter tale of destruction told with tears as goods worth millions of naira went with the raging flames.
Many of the affected traders have since been thrown into serious grief as they grope for help that might not come. Many of them had just restocked their shops. While many count their extreme loses, many others especially those who borrowed to stock their shops now have to start paying back loans for goods eaten by fire.
When the traders opened for business on that day, many of them were beaming with smiles, expecting to make huge sales during the day. Little did they know that the evil was lurking around and that their fortunes were to go up in flames at the end of the day.
If they had known, maybe they would have evacuated all their wares from the shops and serve the fire only the air to consume.
At about 5.00pm that fateful day, the devil struck. Shouts of “fire, fire, fire” rented the air causing panic amongst the traders who scampered for safety and struggled hard to get some of their goods out of their shops.
Amidst the pandemonium, residents assisted by fetching water to put out the fire as there was no functional fire service station in the area. That effort could not contain the raging flames as they rapaciously licked up every consumable on their trail.
Petrified and bemused, traders watched with pain as the evil flames ravaged their wares, which were the lifeline of uncountable families.
Many of the affected traders broke into tears. The fire raged on moving from shop to shop eating up fortunes and life lines and rendering families poor within the twinkle of an eye.
At the end of the day, though the flames had breathed their lasts, impoverished traders are still having their heart aches and midnight tears and they continue to bemoan their losses.
Though it started just before nightfall, the cause of the inferno had remained a mystery. Though some of the traders attributed it to some electrical fault, this is yet to be officially proven.
What else could have caused it? Critics undulates with reasons ranging from the said electrical fault to sabotage though there have been no proof to support both thinking.
Mr. John Okoh, the Chairman of Palm Oil Traders Association at the market blamed the spontaneous widespread of the fire to the closeness of shops in the market which made it difficult to put out the fire.
Okoh who noted that fire outbreaks in the market has become a recurring decimal, regretted that the local government has done little with the revenue collected from the market to improve the facilities.
He said the council must strive to broaden the thoroughfares in the market to make for easy vehicular and human traffic. According to him, the situation would have been different if the thoroughfares were wide enough.
Hajiya Hamidu Tejoulola, a Yoruba woman who sells Yoruba clothing and anointing oil wept bitterly as sympathizers tried hard to console her over her loses.
Amidst sobs, she told Peoples Daily Weekend that she lost goods worth over N2 million to the fire but quickly consoled herself by thanking God for being alive.
“All I have labored for many years is gone just one day. How and where do I start from?” Hajiya Tejoulola lamented.
An equally embittered Chairman of Otukpo Local Government, Dr. Innocent Onu lamented over the fire outbreak but assured that the council was making efforts to establish a functional fire service for rapid response as well as improve on the narrow routes in the market for easy access.
When Peoples Daily Weekend visited the market, hundreds of traders were still seen moving their goods out of the market while others were still bemoaning their loss.
The Otukpo market had in the past witnessed several fire incidents, the worst occurring in 1999 and another fire incident in 2010. It is hoped that the authorities and those directly in charge of the management of the market shall find a permanent solution to the problems so as to avert another disaster in the future.
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