The incessant fire outbreaks in Marian Market, has become a worrisome issue as the gubernatorial candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Comrade Efiom Papa Okokon, has joined others to sympathize with the victims.
It would be recalled that recently, there was another fire outbreak in Marian Market, Calabar, the Cross River State Capital, which destroyed goods worth millions of Naira.
A statement made available to newsmen in Calabar and signed by him, said “my heart was wrenched with agony when I saw the level of destruction wrought by the fire on livelihoods built and nurtured over the years by hardworking citizens.”
He enjoined the traders to take heart and not to be deterred by the setback even as he questioned the regularity of fire incidents in the market.
The SDP Guber candidate called on traders to imbibe safety consciousness and shun activities inimical to their sources of livelihoods.
He also charged them to form a Fire Safety Unit (FSU) which will oversee the maintenance of proper safety culture among the traders in the market.
Comrade Okokon described small scale businesses as one of the very fundamental building blocks of the economy of every society. Hence, his call on traders to protect their sources of livelihoods as any negative impact on them will equally0 reverberate negatively on the economy of the larger society.
He promised that “if elected as governor of Cross River State come 2023, I will adequately train and equip the state emergency services on international best practices and standards in a bid to drastically reduce the level of loss in0 any disaster as well as put in place a mechanism for compensation.”