The Governor of Abia State, Alex Otti, at the weekend, announced the relocation of the motor parks along Milverton Avenue, Abia State
This, he said, was to allow ease of movement for the residents of the city.
He explained that the action by the state government was necessitated by the recent upsurge in fire outbreaks in the Aba markets and some other business facilities.
Otti spoke during an assessment of the fire incident in Ehere Market Aba.
He inspected the charred remains of burnt vehicles, other items and parts of the building housing the bus terminal of Chisco Transport Company, which was gutted by fire Wednesday night.
The Governor said the crowded nature of Chisco Park and all the other parks dotting the about one-kilometre street, was a recipe for disaster.
Mr Otti stated that the government would look at other parks at Osisioma and Port Harcourt Road with more space to relocate the parks at Milverton Avenue.
Words: “I think it’s time we relocated the parks to a more spacious place. We can’t have everybody clustering in a place.
“This is a recipe for disaster, and I know that there are parks around Osisioma, part of Port Harcourt Road.
“We are going to go and have a look at them and ensure that we relocate a lot of these vehicles to the parks so that it could be easy for us to move if there is any incident.”
The Abia Chief Executive directed that henceforth every business facility in the state should have fire extinguishers installed on their premises to contain fire outbreaks.
He revealed that the enforcement of that policy would commence next week.
Otti described the fire incident at the Chisco office as unfortunate and commended the men of the state fire service for mobilising and working hard to stop the fire.