BY CHIDI NKWOPARA

OWERRI—Traders at the newly constructed Satellite Market at Umuezeala, Ehime Mbano, Imo State, are now counting their losses, as goods and property worth millions of Naira were last Monday destroyed by fire.

Reacting to the unfortunate incident, chairman of the market traders union, Chief John Eboh, recalled that he had retired to his home when the security man called at about 11.20pm to inform him about an electric spark in one of the shops.

According to the union leader, before he could get to the market, the whole place had been engulfed by fire.
While recounting with grief that they were only able to save two shops from the ravaging inferno, Eboh, however, recalled that he had previously warned his colleagues against leaving electrical appliances on when closing for the day.

“It is most regrettable that only a few traders religiously kept to this simple instruction. I appeal to the state government to come to our aid,” Eboh pleaded.
Speaking after inspecting the scene, the member for Ehime Mbano in the State House of Assembly, Mr. Kingsley Dimaku, lamented the huge loss caused by the fire.

Dimaku was particularly touched by the case of one Miss  Chiamaka Nnadozie, a student of Imo State Polytechnic, who recently started a petit business in the market to enable her finance her education, as well as help her younger siblings, after losing her mother.

Dimaku said: “This young girl lost her mother recently. Her father is also seriously ill. She has now lost everything in the fire incident. Her case is very pathetic.”