ENSURE THAT REAL VICTIMS ARE ON YOUR COMPENSATION LIST: ONITSHA FIRE VICTIMS BEG GOVT.

The Anambra State Government has promised to bring succour and relief to the victims of the fire incident that rocked some plazas and shops close to Ochanja Market in Onitsha.

The State Deputy Governor and Chairman of the ten man panel set up by Governor Willie Obiano on the fire incidents, Dr. Nkem Okeke, made this known when he led other members of the committee to asses the affected areas.

The committee upon arrival toured round the affected areas while calling out the names of the victims with a view to assessing the level of damage and verifying the names already submitted to ensure that they were the real victims of the fire incident.

The Deputy Governor, while sympathising with the victims on behalf of the state government, said plans were already on to put measures in place to forestall such tragedy in the future.

The Deputy Governor said besides the provision of relief to the victims before December, government had approved the reconstruction of some roads in the area to reduce the rate at which petroleum tankers fall in the state.

He harped on the need for traders to get insurance covers for their goods so as to have something to fall back on in the event of such an incident.

The Commissioner for Public Utilities, Mr. Emeka Ezenwanne, in an interview, announced that government had approved the immediate construction of water boreholes in all the markets across the state starting with Ochanja Market.

He said the governor had also ordered the immediate procurement of new fire fighting trucks and repair of existing ones.

Earlier in a remark, one of the traders, Mr. Chinese Okonkwor, who spoke on behalf of the victims, appealed to the government to deal with them through their landlords instead of persons, whom he alleged were trying to politicise the whole thing.

The ten man panel, which had the Executive Director SEMA, Mr. Cyril Agupugo as Secretary, observed that Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) would be carried out on all the affected buildings to ascertain the ones that would be pulled down for safety of people and their property.

Meanwhile, the traders call on government to critically evaluate the list earlier submitted to it to ensure that only the victims of the fire incident are compensated.

UCHE NDEKE

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