Ariaria Market Flood Disaster: Otti promises to help traders recoup loss

The governorship candidate of Labour Party (LP) in Abia State, Dr Alex Otti, has commiserated with traders at the Ariaria International Market, Aba, over the destruction of their goods by flood.

RELIABLESOURCENG.COM reports that flood last Saturday ravaged the market, a major revenue source of the state government, following a persistent downpour.

Otti, who had earlier sent his running mate, Engr. Ikechukwu Emetu, to the market to visit with the traders and ascertain the level of loss, in a statement issued Wednesday, by his media aide, Ferdinand Ekeoma, expressed sadness over the avoidable disaster and promised to help those affected by the tragedy recoup their loss.

According to the statement, Otti, a renowned economist and former bank chief executive officer, said the “several millions of Naira” lost in the flood incident would have been saved if the state government had paid due attention to the infrastructural development of the market.

He insisted that the flood was predictable due to the lack of basic infrastructure, like good drainage system to channel storm water away from the market, which government ought to have put in place.

READ: 2023: Progressive Ambassadors endorses Labour Party’s Alex Otti for governor Abia State

“Sadly, rather than carry out an aggressive and timely reconstruction of the market and put in place flood control measures, the government had to wait for the flood disaster to strike before commencing the so-called construction of drainage it claimed would help channel flood water out of the market,” the frontline gubernatorial candidate regretted.

Otti squarely put the blame of the flood disaster in Ariaria and the perennial flooding of Aba each time it rains on the government, saying that “the inability of the government to honestly execute the Ifeobara Flood Project in a commendable manner, after seven years in power and after spending several billions of Abia money, is a pointer to the incompetence, inefficiency and insensitivity of the PDP-led government in Abia”.

The Labour Party candidate whose Alex Otti Foundation (AOF) continues to award scholarships to deserving Abia residents, who are students in tertiary institutions across the federation, promised to intervene in the plight of the traders with a view to ameliorating their losses.