ABSG MAY RELOCATE MOTOR PARKS IN ABA AS OTTI VISITS CHISCO LOADING BAY GUTTED BY FIRE
Abia State government may relocate some of the motor parks along Milverton Avenue,Aba to a more spacious area for ease of movement.
This is sequel to the fire incident at Chisco transport company office located at Milverton Avenue, Aba which occured Wednesday evening.
Speaking during an on the spot visit to the company to see the extent of damage, Governor Alex Otti said the crowded nature of the park was a recipe for disaster.
He stated that government will look at other parks at Osisioma and Port Harcourt Road with more space with a view to moving some of the vehicles at Milverton Avenue there.
“And I think it’s time we relocated the parks to a more spacious place. We can’t have everybody clustering in a place. This is a recipe for disaster and I know that there are parks around Osisioma, part of Port-harcourt road . We are going to go and have a look at them and ensure that we relocate a lot of these vehicles to the parks so that it could be easy for us to move if there is any incident.”
Governor Otti directed that henceforth every business facility in the state should have fire extinguishers installed on there premises to forestall fire blazes and disclosed that the enforcement of that policy will commence next week.
The Governor further made public that his administration will procure additional fire trucks to complement what is available in Aba.
He described the fire incident at Chisco office as unfortunate and commended the men of the state fire service for mobilizing and working hard to stop the fire.
Governor Otti regretted that there have been several fire blazes in Aba in the last few weeks indicating that there are things that are not being done right and pleaded with the people to be more careful in order to prevent future fire outbreaks.
“I am happy that the Fire Service mobilized and worked very hard to stop the fire . If you noticed, in the last few weeks, there has been several fire incidents in Aba. That tells me that there things we’ve been doing that we are not doing well. In the first instance, every facility must have fire extinguishers and we are going to enforce it from next week. We will also try and get more fire trucks because I’m told that when the fire was going to over power the service men, they had to seek back up from Umuahia and that’s a distance. “
He commiserated with the owners of the affected businesses over their loss and pledged to support them overcome some of their losses
“So, let me commiserate with the businesses that were affected and their owners and we will as much as possible support them and help them to st least take some of their loses.”
Also speaking, the Mayor of Aba South, Chief Uche Nwogu described the incident as most unfortunate but thanked God that no life was lost,
“We thank God that no life was lost. We thank God that Abia is working. We thank God that we have a Governor that is very sensitive to the plight of the people.
The Fire Service is working. The day was saved by the Fire Service. So it is
unfortunate that in a small place like this, we have diesel dump which might have aggravated the fire incident.
There was a spark from the generator. It exploded , diesel must have aided it. When I got here yesterday, people were scouping diesel from the drainage which is unacceptable. You can’t have diesel dump here. I also suspect that other transport companies might have the same thing . It is not acceptable
Chief Nwogu advised the transport companies to move to their parks as they are operating in the city centre at present which is not acceptable.
He thanked Aba people for joining hands to quench the fire.
Also narrating their ordeal, the Park Manager of CHISCO Companies in Aba Loading Bay, Mr. Ikechukwu Nwosu said the fire started when they noticed a spark as they did a change over after puting on a generating set to pump water.
He said the level of damages cannot be quantified and appealed to the government to come to their aid saying that the loss is monumental.
Items worth millions of naira were lost in the inferno including two luxury buses,a hummer bus ,motorcycles and other items.
Azubuike Jinanwa/Divine Nwankwo
Govt. House Press, Umuahia.
