Senator representing Enugu North Senatorial District, Barr. Okey Ezea has asked the federal government to quickly intervene with relief materials to the victims of Afor-Opi market Inferno.
Afor-Opi market in Nsukka local government area of Enugu state, located along the old 9th mile- Makurdi road, was recently gutted by fire allegedly caused by a truck carrying inflammable products.
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The Inferno which destroyed hundreds of shops and goods worth millions of Naira in the market was caused by a truck while dodging some bad portions on the road and fell in front of the market; spilled its inflammable contents which thereafter ignited fire that wreaked the havoc.
The Chairman Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions said that the accident was avoidable and would have been avoided had the 9th-Mile-Obollo Afor-Makurdi expressway, which hitherto provided veritable bypass to motorists commuting the Eastern Corridor, been motorable.
Senator Ezea had recently called for the urgent repair of the 9th Mile-Obollo–Makurdi expressway which is currently in a dilapidated state.
According to Ezea, “The fallen truck would not have had any need to ply the Old Opi-9th Mile Road, had the 9th Mile-Obollo Afor–Makurdi Expressway been in a state of repair. It’s regretable that the road has for many years been abandoned by successive governments despite repeated appeals to the federal government for urgent intervention on the road.”
While noting the untold hardships his constituents and other users of the road suffer on account of its impassable state, Senator Ezea appealed to the Federal Government for immediate repair and reconstruction of the 9th Mile-Obollo-Afor-Makurdi expressway road to ease the sufferings of both commuters and motorists who ply the road.
The Senator further appealed to both the Federal and State emergency management agencies to quickly respond to the plight of the victims of the inferno through urgent deployment of relief materials as well as assistance in the rebuilding and reconstruction of the affected shops.
“I enjoin the government, at both national and state levels, to show empathy by ensuring that adequate compensations are paid to the fire victims to assuage their losses in this critical period of national economic instability.
“We thank God for zero casualty recorded in the conflagration, but I sympathize with those who sustained various degrees of injury while trying to put out the raging fire,” Ezea said.
