Onitsha inferno: 20 houses, 15 vehicles, goods worth billions lost

—-Obiano Pledges to rehabilitate victims

The commercial city of Onitsha in Anambra State was on Wednesday night engulfed in an inferno that gutted 20 houses, 15 vehicles, 10 tricycles and three filling stations and other properties worth over N5bn, along Oguta Road by Dennis Memorial Grammar School and Upper New Market Road.

This is even as the Anambra State governor, Chief Willie Obiano, on Thursday, promised that his administration will rehabilitate the victims of the inferno by relocating them within the area at least for one year to ameliorate their suffering.

He also added that the state government is considering relocating all the filling stations affected in the incident.

The inferno started around eight O’clock Wednesday night when a petrol tanker lost control and break through the popular Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe Roundabout before ramming into the filling station, thereby causing the fire.

Fortunately, the last staff of the filling station was on her way out of the office when the tanker lost control. However, all the houses and offices near the filling station were not spared as the explosion from the vehicle took the whole environment by storm and affected everything on the right, that is Oguta Road and Upper New Market Road on the left.

Even the street directly behind the filling station, Oboli Lane, was also consumed by the fire. The damage also spread to Mr. Biggs Roundabout at Ogbommanu Junction and that was made possible by the fuel which flowed like a flood down the drainage system filled with sand and dirt.

A popular bookshop, Jeneson, which used to stock good volumes of professional books, an eatery – Devensson, Trend Cable TV, Rex Chemist and Laboratory were all consumed in the fire.

Eye witness account said that the fire service men from Onitsha and Okpoko who came in later were not of much help, untill the Delta State Fire Service from Asaba came to assist in the rescue and were able to limit the damage from spreading to other houses and offices.

One of the hardest hit was the shopping plaza building owned by Chief N. C. Unachukwu, that was totally razed. Speaking to newsmen, Chief Unachukwu said: “One has to thank God that no life was lost, but it pains so much that all the electronics sold here all got burnt.

And my tenant just took delivery of goods worth N70 million on Tuesday. I just advised the wife to go home and think less of the incident.” Meanwhile, Gov. Obiano, who flew in from Abuja on Thursday and was flanked by the Obi of Onitsha, Igwe Alfred Achebe; Commander 302 Artillary Regiment, Col. Idiongisit Akpan and Commanding Officer, Navy Outpost Onitsha, Captain Mohammed Dahiru, when he visisted the scene promised that his administration will rehabilitate the victims by relocating them within the area at least for one year to ameliorate their suffering.

He said the Obi of Onitsha will coordinate the resettlement and rehabilitation of the victims, so that their suffering would be reduced to the barest minimum.

Obiano frowned at the setting up of petrol stations in residential areas, noting that henceforth the state government will ensure that petrol stations are not built indiscriminately at residential areas.

He called on the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) to check the tyres of articulated vehicles so as to stop those that don’t have good tryes from operating on the roads.

He said that he has invested in firefighting trucks which has capacity for 10,000 liters of water, 750 liters of foam and 75 kilogrammes of powder, and other qualities, saying they have already arrived in Lagos, and in two weeks’, they will take delivery of them in the state.

The trucks would be distributed among Awka, Onitsha and Nnewi offices of the state fire service, assuring that they would stop these incidences of fire disaster.

“I am going to set up a committee that will look into the actual people that were affected, headed by the Obi of Onitsha and we will ensure that they are relocated to nearby places here and the state will pay for their house rent even if it is for one year, for them to get back on their feet.

“I am also using this opportunity to direct the Federal Road Safety Corps to seize any heavy duty vehicle coming into Anambra State with bad tyres, and detain the driver for at least a day, so that they know that we are serious about safeguarding our people, and we are going to put barriers in our three flyovers in the state to stop them from falling and blocking our roads,” Obiano said.

The Anambra State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Sam Okaula, who was represented by the Police Public Relations Officer, Nkiru Nwode, warned miscreants to stop cashing in on fire incident and other unfortunate situations to rob people of their property.

Nwode said the Police arrested three people who wanted to use the opportunity of Onitsha fire incident to loot people’s property, saying that they will face the wrath of the law after investigations have been concluded on them.