The ever busy and popular Mile 1 Market at the early hour of Tuesday razed down with fire. Properties and goods worth millions of naira were destroyed.
The cause of the mid night inferno was not known. However, it is very painful to experience a fire incident in a time such as this. This is a period when traders and business men are taking stock as the year is gradually coming to close.
We are very sad, because this is not the first time Mile 1 Market caught fire, but it has become a yearly occurrence, which does not portray the market in a good light.
While sympathizing with the traders who lost their goods and properties estimated at hundreds of millions of naira, we will humbly appeal to the Government of Rivers State to set up a Panel of Inquiry to investigate the immediate and the remote causes of the inferno, and also to proffer solutions to stop future occurrences.
We will also plead with the Government to carry out a census on the affected traders to provide soft loan for them as to start their businesses as 2014 begins. This we believe will cushion the effect of the inferno on the traders. ###
