Bamenda City Council To Rehabilitate Ravaged Nkwen Market

 By Mboh Promise

Paul Achobong, City Mayor of Bamenda speaking to the population at the market

The City Mayor to the Bamenda city council has promised inhabitants of Bamenda and vendors whose shops were consumed by fire to count on the council for rehabilitation.

Paul Achobong, City Mayor to the Bamenda city council was speaking to the population and vendors Wednesday December 1 morning on the eve of the fire incident which consumed more than twenty five shops at the Nkwen market in Bamenda.

Accompanied by the Divisional Officer for Mezam and other administrative authorities in the region, the mayor told the population to exercise patience. He added that the ravaged shops will be identified and rehabilitated as soon as possible.

"I have instructed the market master to count and identify all the shops affected and identify what activities were going on in the shops and make a basic evaluation on the damage done. When we put all the figures together, we will be able to judge from what direction we will comfort the victims," Paul Achobong said

The city mayor has also attributed the fire incident on an electrical fault which triggered the situation at the Nkwen market.

Mayor Achobong has warned the population and defaulters to acknowledge the fact that what caused the fire was an electrical fault and that the act was not done by any individual, as many were thinking.

"We had to call the people who were at the scene, they have attributed to us that the cause of the fire was an electrical failure, that's why we are comfortable to traders. So any one who is thinking that it was caused by something else, we are saying that it was an electrical fault,"the Mayor added

What occurred at the market?

On Tuesday November 30 at about 7pm, a fire incident occurred at the Nkwen market in Bamenda. It escalated and consumed some shops with almost all the items.

Shop owners picking left over after the fire incident

According to eyewitnesses, the fire escalated because the firefighters did not intervene immediately when they were notified by the population concerning the situation.

An eyewitness told reporters that when they called the firefighting agents, it took them about twenty minutes to arrived the scene. It was thanks to the population who fought the fire for some time before the firefighters and security officials could reach the scene, though their tank later got emptied and they had to go refill it, which gave way for the fire incident to deepen.

The fire incident has also gave way for thieves to load shops at the market, since there was total confusion at the place.

Some traders at the market narrated how their shops were broken and items taken away.

"The door to my shop was broken, i thought people were helping me rescue my goods but untill this morning i can't see any of my items, they have been stolen," Madam Josephine lamented

With the sole hope and rescue to be done by the City Mayor through the council, the already stigmatized population that have been affected by the crisis for over five years have no one to look up to.

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