Traders, Customers Cheat Death As Shops Collapse in Aba Market

By Sola Omoniyi, Lagos

Some traders and their customers on Wednesday, July 19, escaped death by a whisker at Ekeoha shopping centre in Aba, Abia State when some shops in a section of the market collapsed.

According to report, the incident happened in the morning when buying and selling were in top gear.

Though no loss of life was recorded, goods worth millions of naira were destroyed.

A trader, who gave his name as Ifeoma, said she came to the market to purchase some items when suddenly somebody started raising the alarm that some walls in zone 13 of the shopping centre were cracking.

According to Ifeoma, this alarm made traders and their customers rush out of their shops after which some shops collapsed a few minutes later, damaging many goods.

Many traders, who survived the crash, thanked God for sparing their lives, while others lamented that their goods were buried in the rubbles.

Yet, others accused the contractors that built the shops of delivering a shoddy job which according to them, resulted in the incident.

Following the incident, Governor Alex Otti commiserated with the traders over the incident and dispatched the Commissioner for information and culture, Okey Kanu and his Special Assistant on Aba rejuvenation, Uche Ukeje to carry out on-the-spot assessment of the incident.