Victims of the 40 -foot petrol tanker fire indent that happened in Onitsha, Anambra state last Wednesday night counted their losses as Mr Godwin Ezeemo, leader of Progressive People Alliance, PPA, in the state, came calling to physically see the extent of damage done to their property and pledged to assist the victims.
On arrival he first visited the ill-fated tanker at DMGS round-about petroleum filling station where the vehicle somersaulted, exploded and emptied its content at the filling station when the driver lost control of the Vehicle as a result of brake failure.
He was later welcomed at a burnt two-storey building located at Upper new market road that housed about seven lawyers with some of their cars also set ablaze by the raging inferno.
Pleading on behalf of the lawyers for assistance while giving a graphic account of the incident to Mr. Ezeemo, Barrister KOK. Oguejiofor blamed the fire service men in the state for not rendering the expected assistance when the incident happened.
He said “30 minutes before the explosion no proactive measure was taken by the fire service men and when they came they had problem of engine to pump the water. If not for the Delta state fire servicemen we called, the fire incident would have been worse”
Contributing another victim, Barrister (Mrs) Enwelum Juliet stated that, “we were here till 2.am and the fire stated about 8.pm”.
“You can see that about four of our colleauques’ cars were burnt beyond recognition including the offices, we plead for assistance from Ezeemo, state government and other good spirited individuals.
Mrs Oboli Juana, a widow while lamenting the incident told Ezeemo that “I built the burnt one-storey two years ago after the death of my husband, now it is in ashes”.
“I did not pick a pin, the whole property acquired since my life has gone, what do I do, please Sir help me” she cried.
In his response, Ezeemo blamed the three Local Government Areas, Onitsha North and South including Ogbaru Local Government for not being of necessity during the incident.
He described the incident as an accident and advocated for proactive measure to prevent future occurrence.
The industrialist urged the widow and other victims to take heart adding that the incident would not take their lives.
He directed for the compilation of the names of the victims for personal assistance from him, and told the widow that she would hear from him
According to him, “the federal government should make money available for firefighting equipments and this will stop escalation of fire incident.
“ For me I will do the much I can as an individual to help the victims. The state and federal governments should provide their equipments because we have filling stations situated in the residential areas, including gas plant installations among others”.
“I learnt that no life was lost but there are people in the hospital who may because of shock or so, we are going there to meet them and sympathize with them and I want to thank the Delta state fire service men for their aid. The federal Government should provide these equipments, they are necessity not luxury”, he fumed.
Those who also spoke on the incident included, the President General of all the markets in Anambra state, Chieff Okwudili Ezenwankwo who described the incident as an accdent and urged the state Government to put in proactive measure to avoid large scale destruction in future occurance
He said “I am saddened by the large scale destruction and I have not seen such since I was born in the south East especially Anambra state “
“The Governor was the first to call me to assist to show you he has the people’s interest at heart and I rushed to the scene where I saw hundreds of millions of naira worth of property destroyed by the inferno.
Contributing the chairman of Ugwuagba Old Car Parts marked Obosi Chief Emma Obiagwu, urged the state government to stop people from siting filing stations in residential areas adding that he lacks words to express his feeling on the incident.