Following recent upsurge in fire outbreaks in the markets and some other business facilities, the Abia State Government has announced a possible relocation of the motor parks along Milverton Avenue, Aba, to a more conducive area to allow for ease of movement.

Governor Alex Otti declared the Milverton Avenue parks as a recipe for disaster, after inspecting the carcass of burnt vehicles, other items and parts of the building housing the bus terminal of Chisco Transport Company, which was gutted by fire Wednesday night.

Speaking Thursday during an on the spot assessment of the fire incident, Governor Otti said the crowded nature of the Chisco park and all the other parks dotting the about one kilometre street, was a recipe for disaster.

He stated that the government would look at other parks at Osisioma and Port Harcourt Road, with more space, with a view to relocating the parks at Milverton Avenue.

“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,” he said.

Governor Otti directed that henceforth, every business facility in the state should have fire extinguishers installed on their premises to contain fire outbreaks and disclosed that the enforcement of that policy would commence next week.

The Governor announced that his administration had purposed to 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 mobilising and working hard to stop the fire.

Governor Otti regretted that there have been several fire cases in Aba in the last few weeks, suggesting 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 mobilised and worked very hard to stop the fire. If you noticed, in the last few weeks, there have been several fire incidents in Aba. That tells me that there are 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 overpower the service men, they had to seek back up from Umuahia and that’s a distance,” he said.

He commiserated with the transport company over its loss and pledged government’s support to “at least, take some of their loses.”

The Mayor of Aba South, Chief Uche Wogu, who, in company of the Mayor of Aba North, Chief John Udeagbala, joined Governor Otti on the visit, described the incident as most unfortunate and thanked God that no life was lost. He commended the Governor as well as men of the state fire service for rising to the occasion.

“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. 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 scooping 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,” Mayor Wogu declared.

Chief Wogu advised the transport companies to move to the new parks proposed by the government as they are operating in the city centre at present, which, according to him, is not acceptable. He thanked Aba people for helping to quench the fire.

Narrating how the fire started, the Park Manager of Chisco Company in Aba loading bay, Mr. Ikechukwu Nwosu, said the fire was started by a spark that occurred as a staff of the company tried to change power supply to a generating set, to pump water.

He lamented over the company’s loss, appealing to the government for support to minimise the impact. Two luxury buses, a hummer bus, motorcycles, and other items were said to have been lost in the inferno.

KAZIE UKO
Chief Press Secretary to the Governor
Abia State
Government House, Umuahia
March 14, 2024.