Traders cry for help as flood ravages Ariaria market
in Abia State, Nigeria
■ Rain boots to the rescue
FROM OKEY SAMPSON, ABA
Aba used to be described as the
melting point of the Igbo race. It is a city where at least every family in
Igbo land was not found. Indeed, anybody who is somebody in Igbo land no matter
where he is residing presently had his roots in Aba. These coalesce and
congregation of Ndigbo in Aba was not for nothing. The Igbo being by nature
enterprising people; who have taken commerce to its limits, found Aba, equally
a commercial city an alluring abode.
But regrettably, Aba, a city that
used to compare favourably with ancient cities like Gao, Timbuktu, kano and
others in terms of commerce is now a ghost of itself owing to some
inexplicable reasons. The past administration could not put adjoining roads in
the city in good condition, making it impossible for traders who come from
neighbouring states and even Cameroon to access Aba to purchase their goods,
the result being that traders in Aba were put out of business.
Traders in some parts of Ariaria
International are facing what has been described as double wahala which could
be found in bad roads which dot the whole landscape of the city and the
debilitating flooding that is ravaging the popular A –Line and the drug
section of the market. Indeed the past eight years have not been the best of
times for traders in this part of the city.
Aba Metro gathered that in 2014,
patent medicine dealers at the drugs section of the market lost goods worth
over N2 billion to the flood. The traders alleged that flooding of the area was
aggravated by a building erected on a water way adjacent the market close to
the portion of the State Fire service. This obstructive structure is reported
to be owned by the son of a powerful former government official. The flooding,
the traders said is further made worse by the deplorable nature of roads in the
market and the Ukwu Mango area which the last administration in the state
claimed to have rehabilitated.
The traders have, therefore, sent a
save our soul message to Governor Okezie Ikpeazu, saying that if nothing was
done urgently, the flood would not only sack them from their area of business
but will also submerge the entire section of the market which they said is the
pride of Ariaria.
Speaking with Aba Metro, the
traders, who appeared to have regretted the day they got shops in that section
of the market, lamented the double trouble of daily wading through the muddy
and sinking flood water with its attendant health hazard and the loss of their
customers they have suffered over the years with no end in sight. They expressed
fear that if the flood was not checked, they would soon be out of business as
the flood is not abating.
A trader at A-Line, who gave his
name as Chimaobi, appeal to the governor to declare the place a disaster area
and do something urgently to save them from going out of business. “We want the
state Governor, Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu to come to our aid. We are really suffering
and don’t know what to do. The past administration was only keen in collecting
levies from the market, they did not do much to help us and that is why we are
calling on Governor Ikpeazu to come to our aid in order to help us come out of
this ugly situation we have found ourselves”.
Samuel is another trader at A-Line,
he has this to say: “Flood water has entered her shops on several occasions and
destroyed our goods. Last year, our neighbours who sell drugs lost goods worth
over N2 billion to flood and up till moment, nobody gave them a dime in form of
compensation”.
Continuing, he said: “We weren’t
spared either if not that the drinks and fruit juice we sell can be washed and
dried up in the rain. But some people that sell travelling bags also had a
share of the flood impact.
“In order not to be beaten twice,
since then, some of us now rent some of the lockup shops upstairs which we use
as our parking store and use this place that we are now as our display shop and
at the end of each market day we pack them upstairs because nobody is sure of
when it will rain next”.
When asked about how the situation
was affecting their business, the trader retorted: “How many persons did you
see coming into this flood to buy or even to price for anything? For you to
make any sales in a day, you have to take your goods to where is called
Enyimba, that is where our customers now stay and call us on phone to place
their orders.
And for you to do this effectively,
you must wear your rain boots. In fact, there is no trader in this section of
the market that does not owe a pair of rain boots, otherwise you can not enter
or come out of your shop.
“It’s good that you are here. It is
not a rumour. We can only move in and out of our shops with rain boots. Things
are that bad, in fact, the situation has worsened with the rains of yesterday
(early Tuesday morning)”, he said.
[Sunnews]
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