IYC Calls On Governor Okowa To Construct Burnt Ogbe-Ijoh Market 

The Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) worldwide has called on Governor Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta State to construct the Ogbe-Ijoh market, Warri in Warri South Local Government Area of Delta State to avoid the perennial fire outbreak in the market.

The President of the IYC, Eric Omare made the call when he visited the market to sympathize with traders who lost their goods and properties to the market inferno in the early hours of Wednesday November 22, 2017.

While briefing the IYC Leader, Vice Chairman of the Ogbe-Ijoh Market Committee, Mr. Richard Numa and Mr. Bundle Fupu, a member of the Warri South Vigilante explained that the make-shift type of structures in the market mainly accounts for the incessant fire outbreak in the market.

The Ogbe-Ijoh market leaders stated that the lack of proper structures in the market has been hindering the management of the market including the security and management of emergency situations such as fire outbreak.

They stated that fire fighters usually find it difficult to access the market because of the ramshackle nature of structures which has cost a lot of people their fortune over the years.

A cross section of the market traders also explained their ordeal to the Ijaw youth leader saying that there are now perpetual debt payers because of the constant fire outbreaks in the market which usually destroyed their goods.

In his response, the IYC President, Mr. Eric Omare sympathize with traders over the unfortunate incident and bemoaned the persistent outbreak of fire in the Ogbe-Ijoh market while calling on Governor Ifeany Okowa to as a matter of urgency commence the construction of the market.

Omare noted that the Ogbe-Ijoh market is oldest government recognized market in Delta State established via the Ogbe-Ijoh Market Ordinance of 1894 and amended on the 14 of August of 1937 through the Market Ordinance amendment Act by B. H. Bourdillon, then Governor General of Southern Nigeria.

The Ijaw Youth Leader wondered why markets of even lesser significance are being built and given attention whereas the Ogbe-Ijoh market which is the biggest fish market in southern Nigeria and serves traders from more than ten states of the federation is not given the required attention.

He recalled that there was an attempt to build the market by the administrations of Felix Ibru and James Ibori but since then nothing has been done towards constructing the market.

The IYC leader therefore called on Governor Okowa to include the construction of the Ogbe-Ijoh market in the Delta State 2018 appropriation since the said budget is before the Delta State House of Assembly to save the market traders the ordeal of persistent fire outbreaks and loss of source of living, IYC’s spokesman, Henry Iyalah, said in a statement on Thursday.