Anguish, Grief As Calabar Market Inferno Victims Recount Ordeal

It was like a nightmare to traders doing business at Marian Market Calabar when they were told that their goods worth millions of naira had been gutted by fire.

There was anguish and despair as many traders resorted to crying as the entire market was thrown into pandemonium with many of the market traders wearing long faces.

In the last two decades, tales of fire outbreaks at Marian where traders doing business at the market lose their hard-earned money to inferno are not new to anyone who resides in Calabar Municipality LGA Of Cross River State.

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A trader, Mary Nsikak said within the last decade, Marian market has witnessed about three fire outbreaks which have destroyed properties worth millions of naira.

She continued: “It is one of the notorious markets in the entire Cross River State known for experiencing many fire outbreaks in the last decade. A great fortune had been lost to the inferno.
“Right from the time when the market was opened, millions of naira are said to have gone down the drain due to the number of fire outbreaks that have taken the fortunes of businessmen and women doing business in the area.”
Findings by LEADERSHIP Weekend revealed that traders themselves were responsible for the agony and pains which had visited the traders doing business at Marian market at regular intervals.
Among the causes of fire outbreaks at Mariam Market include; carelessness on the part of traders who locked up their shops and returned home without putting off their appliances.
LEADERSHIP Weekend also gathered that there had been incidents where residents of the market heard stories of fire outbreaks caused by a spark from electricity supply in the area which triggered a fire outbreak about four years ago leading to the loss of properties and traders’ good at that market.
“This has also sent many traders to the streets of Calabar to face abject poverty,” said a trader Eze Nwachukwu.

However, past administrators of Calabar Municipality councils chairmen had made several efforts to correct these abnormalities by making several renovations at the market, which have yielded no fruitful results.
On August 30, 2022, traders of Mirian Market who trade in fruit again suffered losses amid fire incidents.

Shops stocked with goods worth millions of naira were burnt down to ashes leaving the victims in penury and tears due to losses incurred following the fire outbreak which lasted for over four hours until a team of Federal Fire Service arrived at the scene to put out the market fire.

Speaking on the issue, the commanding officer, Calabar Command of the Federal Fire Service, Mrs. Olumayowa Olomolo stated that the outbreak was caused by a gas explosion in one of the shops that had cylinders inside.

Olomolo stressed that the Command made their way to the scene of the incident when they received a distress call at about 2:40 am when the fire outbreak began and the personnel on duty quickly swung into action to salvage the situation.
Narrating the incident, Olomolo explained that the fire started in one of the shops where the occupant, a woman who was boiling beans, slept off.
The woman, she said, had another cylinder filled up with gas in her shop which led to the explosion when she was cooking and got burnt.
“There was no presence of other fire services outside that of the federal and it was not until around 7 am before we were able to put out the fire,” the commander stated.
She lauded the personnel of the service and good Nigerians that put the call across the fire service for quick intervention to salvage the situation.
One of the traders, Magaret Bassey, lamented that she lost goods worth about two million naira to the fiery inferno.
The goods, she said, were collected on credit.

She said: “I collected goods worth million naira with the ones that were in the shop also worth about one million naira total twin million naira. I don’t know how to start again.
“I don’t know how to manage to pay the debt which I owe now that my shop is burnt down”.
A middle-aged widow, Esther Ekong, said she lost N800,000 meant for her rent and children’s school fee to the fiery inferno.
“I don’t know how to face my landlord. I opt to pay my rent next week after the sales of goods I bought last week. Now the whole goods I bought have been engulfed in flames,” she lamented.
Also, a student at the University of Calabar, Arit Ephraim, who is also a trader, said she was trading with funds borrowed from LAPO (a microfinance bank), but lost all to the fire outbreak.
Narrating her ordeal, she said, “I borrowed money from LAPO for the sustenance of my business, just look at what has happened to my business now.
“I planned to use my gain for my school fee once the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) suspends its strike. My hope at the moment is ruined, my dreams and aspirations shattered.”
Speaking on the issue, the chairperson of the fruit traders association, Mrs. Agnes Edem appealed to the state government to assist traders who lost their goods to the inferno.
She said, “I have three children who are in school, all I have for the sustenance of my family is this business. All we are saying is that the state government should come to our aid to assist us to bounce back to our feet.”