By Tony Oraeki,Awka
At least four persons were confirmed dead yesterday while twelve others sustained different degrees of injury following an explosion at the Onitsha Drug Market, popularly called’ Ogbo Ogwu’ which led to an inferno in the area.
So far, goods worth over #850million were said to have been destroyed by the bomb blast with several shops also destroyed in the process.
The bomb blast occured at about 12,45 pm at the market which led to stampede at the market and later ignited fire. As a result of the traders scampering for safety, four persons lost their lives while more than twelve persons sustained various levels of injury in the process.
The Chairman of Onitsha South local government area, Mr. Emeka Orji on getting wind of the incident, stormed the area with members of his staff and contacted the Anambra state Fire Service led by Martin Agbili who deplored officers and men of the department from Okpoko in Ogbaru local government area and that of Asaba in Delta state who took over the market.
Also the Council Chairman Orji contacted the Divisional Police Officer, DPO Fegge Rabiu Garuba who deployed officers and men to the market to guarantee security of goods and other properties belonging to the traders.
According to one of the traders who spoke to this reporter, Mr Nweke Uchenna;
“We were at our shops as usual when we heard a loud noise like a bomb blast and we saw tick smoke from some shops upstairs and everyone started running for safety.
“Then people started shouting for help and we saw people carrying bodies of people from those shops that were on fire and some were burnt pretty badly while some seem to have been suffocated by the smoke and the stampede.
“We don’t know how much that have been lost to the fire but it can be estimated at #850 million to about #1billion because the goods are strong chemical products that are highly inflammable.” He said.
Speaking on the incident, the Onitsha South Council Chairman Mr Emeka Orji said that the incident was unfortunate, adding that the decongested market almost made it difficult for officers and men of the Anambra Fire Service to put off the fire.
“We are happy that the Anambra state Fire Service came on time to prevent the inferno from going deep into the market.
“Our proactive measures about fire outbreak also paid off because we had put in place fire fighting gadgets in some lines and that was what the traders and market task force team were using to fight the fire before the Anambra state Fire Service came in.
” The number of deaths could not be ascertained as well as the number of those injured but those injured have been rushed to the medical facilities around the area and we are happy that most of them are responding to treatment.” he stated.
