Tag Archives: Onitsha

UPDATE: 10 buildings, filling station, shops razed in Onitsha fire.

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Many people escaped death on Wednesday night when fire razed about 10 buildings in Onitsha, Anambra State.

The fire which started at about 8.20 p.m. from a filling station at Denis Memorial Grammar School, Onitsha (DMGS) junction affected banks, streets markets and many vehicles.

The fire was caused by a tanker loaded with fuel which lost control and rammed into the filling station situated at the DMGS roundabout.

The truck exploded after the collision, witnesses said.

PREMIUM TIMES gathered that many people were injured while trying to escape from their buildings while others were injured trying to remove wares and property from their shops and houses.

Buses burnt by the fire.
Buses burnt by the fire.

Also, security agents who mobilised to the site to provide security arrested three persons while trying to break into one of the banks.

Fire service officials from neighbouring Asaba in Delta State it were called in to help their Anambra State counterparts put off the fire.

Fire outbreak in Onitsha filling station. Buildings, properties destroyed.

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A fire outbreak occurred at Mobil Petrol Station at DMGS roundabout, Onitsha, Anambra State on Wednesday night.

The fire is said to have been caused by a petrol tanker loaded with fuel.

According to Chukwumerie Uduchukwu, a Facebook user, the fire badly damaged a two-storey building near the filling station and surrounding buildings.

In the video shared by the Facebook user, fire service officials were seen trying to put out the fire.

Details later…

5 Killed, 7 Injured As IPOB, MASSOB Clash With JTF In Onitsha

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Five persons were, yesterday, shot dead at the Niger Bridge Head, while seven others sustained varying degrees of injuries when members of the Indigenous people of Biafra, IPOB, and Movement for the Actualization of Sovereign State of Biafra, MASSOB, clashed with Joint Task Force, JTF, comprising the  Army and the Police, which mounted road block at the Niger Head Bridge.

Four of the victims shot dead were members of both IPOB and MASSOB, while one person is said to be a soldier, who was grabbed by the  mob, angry with the way soldiers opened fire on the jubilating crowd that included non pro-Biafra agitators, and fell four of them before they ran for their lives, leaving the victims behind.

All the markets around the Niger Bridge Head, including the Bridge Head Market, Onitsha Patent and Propitiatory Medicine Dealers Market (Ogbo Ogwu Market) and other markets located around the bridge, including Abada Market were quickly shut down, following sporadic shooting by the military to scare the jubilant crowd away.

Meanwhile, a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja, yesterday,  ordered the Department of State Service, DSS, to immediately release  the detained  leader of IPOB, Mr. Nnamdi Kanu.

The court directed that Kanu, who had been in detention since October 17,  should be released “unconditionally.”

Ruling on the fundamental rights suit by Kanu, the trial judge, Justice Ademola Adeniyi, said there was no basis for the applicant to remain in custody since there was currently no charge pending against him.

The court order came barely 24 hours after an Abuja Chief Magistrate’s Court sitting at Wuse Zone 2, struck out a one-count  charge the Federal Government preferred against the IPOB leader.

Meanwhile, according to an eye-witness at the Onitsha Head Bridge, who was coming from Asaba end of the bridge, the Biafra agitators were said to be marching on the road near the River Niger Bridge, chanting solidarity songs in jubilation for the release of Nnamdi Kanu, and were accosted by the soldiers, who ordered them to go back, and disagreements ensued before the soldiers allegedly opened fire on them.

Another version of the story had it that, the pro-Biafra agitators and those sympathetic to their cause, were jubilating, singing and dancing near the bridge and in annoyance, the soldiers, who had been guiding the bridge since the last shooting, during which unarmed nine protesters were killed and 18 others  injured,  opened fire on them, gunning down four.

Credit: Vanguard

2 Fire Fighters Die, N400m Goods Destroyed In Onitsha Midnight Fire

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Tears flowed freely yesterday at the Ochanja ultra modern market, Onitsha as a Sunday midnight fire   ravaged the shoe dealers’ section of the market destroying goods worth over N400million.

Unfortunately, two fire fighters from Okpoko Fire Service Station died while trying to put out the fire even as traders in other sections of the market closed their shops in solidarity yesterday.

Giving an insight into the incident, Chairman of Ochanja Shoe Dealers Association, Chief Nwabueze Umeh told Daily Sun that a mysterious fire started in a shop within the market at 5 p.m. on Sunday but they were able to quench the fire and went back home only to get another news at about 2 a.m. that another fire started in a different section of the market.

He said they immediately contacted men of the Okpoko Fire Station, who quickly mobilised to the scene but while they were at work, a decking slab from the shops caved in and killed one of the fire fighters instantly while the other had his spine broken. He died at the hospital where he was  taken to for treatment. Umeh noted further that the tragedy which befell the fire fighters stalled further efforts to put out the fire leading to the destruction of many shops with goods estimated at N400 million lost to the inferno.

Governor Willie Obiano visited the market yesterday morning and promised to provide fire-fighting equipment to the traders and also assist victims.

Two of the affected traders, Boniface Amaizu from Oraifite and Iloduba John Kennedy told Daily Sun  that they were alerted on phone at about  3 a.m. while they were in the village that Sunday but before they could get to the market by 4a.m, their shops and their entire goods had been consumed by t he fire.

Credit: Sun

Fire Razes Onitsha Electronics Market

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Barely five days after a mysterious fire ravaged Onitsha Car Paints market, another fire yesterday razed down the Onitsha International Electronics Market, Anambra State.

No life was lost but three security men sustained injures while goods worth about N60 million were destroyed by the inferno which started at about 3am.

Reports gathered that mostly affected was the double musical equipment shop (Amson Electronics) where over N35 million worth of wares were destroyed by fire.

The cause of the fire, which has not been ascertained, started from one of the lock-up shops, according to an eyewitness and one of the vigilante in the market who said he immediately alerted his commander when the fire started.

Read More: sunnewsonline

Osinbajo Visits Onitsha, Commiserates With Tanker Accident Victims

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Vice President Yemi Osinbajo on Wednesday commiserated with the people and government of Anambra over the fuel tanker accident, which claimed over 40 lives at Upper Iweka in Onitsha.

Mr. Osinbajo, who visited the scene of the accident and the injured at Toronto Hospital on Wednesday, said President Muhammadu Buhari was very concerned and pained by the incident.

He said the president felt it was not enough to send a condolence message and as such asked him to go and commiserate with the people. “Every Nigerian citizen matters to the Federal Government no matter his status or where he resides. Mr President asked me to come and first commiserate with Gov. Willie Obiano and Anambra people. He was very concerned that he felt it was not enough to issue condolence message and so asked me to come and commiserate with the people. I have been taken round to see the heroic action of the hospital staff and those involved in emergency. Unfortunately, many lost their lives but some have seen today and are responding to treatment,’’ he said.

Mr. Osinbajo told a crowd that gathered around Upper Iweka, scene of the accident, that he had been discussing with Gov. Obiano on possible ways the Federal Government and Anambra Government could cooperate to forestall further accident. He commended Mr. Obiano for undertaking to settle the hospital bills of the victims.

Earlier, while briefing the vice-president, Mr. Obiano said the Anambra Government had banned long trucks and petrol tankers from plying roads in Anambra during the day. The governor said the government had banned heavy duty vehicles from plying state roads, adding that they must trans-load their cargoes on getting to state roads.

According to him, the materials used in constructing state roads are not the same as the ones used in building federal roads and each time heavy duty trucks ply state roads, they cause heavy damage on them.

Credit: NAN

Petrol Tanker Explodes In Onitsha, 40 Killed (PHOTOS)

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No fewer than 40 persons were burnt beyond recognition yesterday at the ever- busy Upper Iweka in Onitsha, Anambra State when a petrol tanker exploded at the Asaba Park axis after a suspected brake failure.

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Fourteen L300 buses loading passengers inside the park and three motorcycles plying the area as at the time of the incident were also burnt. Among those killed in the fire were a  pregnant woman and little babies.

The tragic incident, which occurred at about 2.30p.m. threw residents and travellers in the commercial city of Onitsha into panic. Many wailed uncontrollably at the site of the charred remains  of the victims.

Victims of the accident were mostly drivers and passengers at the park, free readers who thronged the newspaper stands along the park, vendors and hawkers  in the area.

An eye witness, Victor Ugwumadu, said the driver of the petrol-laden tanker was descending the Upper Iweka flyover from the Enugu-Nkpor end of the expressway when the vehicle lost its brakes and the driver divaerted the vehicle into the busy NITEL Lane, where different transport companies load their vehicles before finally hitting the Asaba Park and ramming into the VIP toilet building, killing many people in the process.

Credit: sunnewsonline