BY AGNES NWORIE, ABAKALIKI
The Public Complaints Commission in Ebonyi State has declared its readiness to probe the state Fire Service, Afikpo branch, over allegation of negligence of duty during the recent fire outbreak at the Afikpo Ekeukwu market in Afikpo North Local Government Area of the state.
A part of the expansive market where different kinds of goods are warehoused and sold went up in flames recently leaving huge losses in its trail.
The Federal Commissioner in charge of the PCC in the state, Donald Ogbonna-Chukwu, who sympathised with victims of the fire outbreak, vowed to investigate the Fire Service over what he described as administrative negligence of duty.
Chukwu, in an interview with The Point shortly after a visit to the scene of the accident, berated the State Fire Service, Afikpo branch, over its perceived failure to respond promptly to the incident.
Noting that several stores were razed in the market with goods worth millions of naira destroyed, Chukwu indicated that his office would probe key actors in the Ebonyi State Fire Service for not being proactive.
The fire outbreak happened at Eke Market in Afikpo town, Ebonyi State in the late hour of the day recently with a section of the popular market completely razed down.
No life was lost in the incident, however.
The cause of the inferno has yet to be ascertained. Traders who were taken unawares made frantic efforts to salvage their goods from the tongue of the fire to no avail as a result of its intensity.
Efforts to reach top officials of the Service for comments were not successful as of the time of filing this report.
It was learnt that the Ebonyi State Fire Service station in Afikpo could not respond adequately to the emergency due to lack of functional equipment.
The youths in the neighbourhood reportedly mobilised themselves to the scene in order to quell the fire. It was however, learnt that they could not go far as the fire raged with high intensity.
During his visit to the scene of the incident, the Chairman of the local government, Oby Oko-Enyim, who lamented the level of damage, urged the victims of the fire outbreak to take solace in the fact that they didn’t perish in the accident.
He said, “So far as there is life, there is hope. Don’t lose hope or give up because of this. You shall all overcome this setback.”
Johnson Inya Oka, Chairman of Afikpo Market Traders Association, conducted Oko-Enyim around the scene of the outbreak during his visit.
Oka, who said that many of the traders lost their wares totally in the inferno, called on government agencies in charge of disaster management to come to the aid of the victims.
Responding, the Council Chairman promised that the local government authority would ensure that basic emergency control measures were put in place to prevent a recurrence.
