UPDATE ON OWERRI NEW MARKET FIRE: police Tells Their Own Part of Story, Reveals What Really Happened
A midnight fire outbreak on Wednesday engulfed the Owerri new market on Douglas road in Owerri, Imo State, causing some traders who had gone home to rush back to the market to secure their goods.
The state Commissioner of Police, Chris Ezike, told our Punch in a telephone conversation on Thursday that the fire “was as a result of traders who were burning cables in order to extract copper from them.”
The incident happened less than 10 hours after Governor Rochas Okorocha visited the market and gave the traders a 48-hour ultimatum to vacate the premise.
The governor ordered the traders to move to Naze, which is far from the state capital. The ultimatum expires on Friday.
Said Ezike, “When you open an electric cable, there is a metal called copper, that was what the traders who were packing into a new trading site were trying to extract before the outbreak.
“It affected some buildings, but no goods were burnt because the traders had already packed their goods.”
“No life was lost and no case of injury. I have ordered that the cables be confiscated. No arrest was made.
“With the help of fire fighters, we battled till 1am to put out the fire,” Ezike added.
