By Uzo Ugwunze
House of Representatives Member for Onitsha North and South Constituency, Hon. Emeka Idu has sympathized with victims of fire disaster at No: 14 Uga Street by Sheba, Fegge Onitsha which destroyed industrial sewing machines, part of a building and property worth millions of naira at the early hours of Thursday May 8, 2025.
Consoling both the Land Lord of the 3 Storey building gutted with fire, Mr Aaron Chukwudi Ezeobi and the tenant, Mr Nwankwo Jude who was using the topmost floor of the building for a mini Industrial sewing factory, Hon. Emeka Idu encouraged them not to take their loss to heart to avoid health crisis, praying that God will grant them speedy recovery from the unfortunate incident.
The Rep Member instantly transfered the sum of N200,000 to Mr. Nwankwo, saying that he would find out the cost of the industrial sewing machines to enable him offer further assistance. Hon Idu also asked the land lord to inform him as soon as the re roofing of the burnt building commences to make his own financial contribution.
“Please hold yourself, do not think too much about your loss to avoid High blood pressure which can lead to stroke. The N200,000 is to hold yourself for now pending when you are ready to replace the sewing machines let us see how we can further assist you,” he assured.
Meanwhile, Mr Nwankwo Jude said that the fire started around 2:30am as a result of electricity surge which was epileptic throughout Wednesday night.
“It was a terrible loss. The fire out break destroyed everything including seven(7) Industrial sewing machines which costs about N1.5 million each, six(6) straight sewing machines and unquantified cloth materials that runs into millions of naira,” Nwankwo said.
Moreover, the Landlord, Mr Aaron Chukwudi Ezeobi lamented that he had been warning Mr Nwankwo to discontinue using his residential building for business cum industry, saying that he had previously served Mr Nwankwo with a quit notice which was due to expire by next month before the inferno, saying he is pained because of the prevalent high cost of building materials.
- Ugwunze is of the Ministry of Information, Anambra State *
