The Movement for the Actualization of Sovereign States of Biafra, MASSOB, has called on Governor abdulahi Ganduje of Kano State to compensate Igbo traders who were victims of the recent fire incident which gutted the Sabon Gari market.
The midnight fire incident at Sabon Gari Market, Kano consumed goods of traders worth millions of Naira and touched over 4,000 shops.
MASSOB’s National Director of Information, Sunny Okereafor, in a statement lamented that Igbo traders have severally been at the receiving end of any market demolition and fire incidents in Nigeria, amounting to untold loss of cash and property, even as he urged the Kano state government to ensure that victims of the inferno are compensated adequately.
Okerefaor urged Igbo businessmen to invest at home, stressing that if the Igbo could establish 30% of their businesses in their home states, the South East would be more developed than Abuja and Lagos cities.
According to him, “We are calling on the Kano state government to compensate victims of the Sabon Gari market fire incident. From available information MASSOB had gathered, 90% of the affcted traders are of the Igbo stock who have suffered losses.
“They should be compensated to assist them get back to business. Again, the state government should set up a probe panel to find the immediate and remote cause of the incident. Ndigbo contributes immensely to the development of Kano state, and must not be abandoned in this hour of need.
“MASSOB has lost count of market fire incidents and demolition of markets, including government induced policies targeted at Igbo traders. In Lagos state, in January 2016, Igbo traders returned from the Christmas and New Year festivities to see their shops demolished on the orders of Gov. Akinwunmi Ambode and wares looted by hoodlums.
“During crises and riot situations, Igbo traders are always targeted and their goods destroyed. This is why we are calling on the international community to prevail on President Muhammadu Buhari to organize a referendum and grant Ndigbo an independent state of Biafra where there would be no victimization.”
Okereafor also called on the governor to institute a commission of inquiry into the incident, further stated that those arrested for looting properties at the burnt market should not be allowed to escape justice. The Nation
