Stephen Ukandu, Umuahia
Governor Alex Otti, has visited the scene of Chisco Transport bus terminal Aba which was gutted by fire on Wednesday night.
The fire incident is coming less than one week after the Timber section of Ehere market Aba, was also gutted by fire.
Otti who sympathised with the Management of the top transport company, expressed dissatisfaction over the congestion of motor parks around the Milverton Avenue.
He, therefore, said that all the motor parks at the area would be relocated to a more convenient location for the good of all.
Although no life was lost in the Chisco park fire incident, two luxury buses, a hummer bus, motorcycles, and other items were completely destroyed.
Otti said the reason for the relocation is to allow for ease of movement to and fro the parks and markets.
He said 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.
“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.”
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, however, commended the men of the state fire service for mobilising and working hard to extinguish the fire.
“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.
Otti promised Government’s support to the Transport company, to help mitigate the weight of its loss.
Mayor of Aba South, Chief Uche Wogu, who accompanied 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 Mayor who blamed the incident on a spark from a generator, frowned at the attitude of those who store diesel at the congested park.
“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.
Narrating how the fire started, the Chisco Park Manager, 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.
Nwosu who said the company had lost so much, solicited Government’s aid.
