A human rights group, Liberty Access and Defenders Peace Foundation, has donated N200,000 to victims of the recent Ochanja market inferno, Onitsha, Anambra State.

The fire, which killed five people and damaged property worth millions of naira was caused by the fall of a tanker laden with Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), along the Enugu-Onitsha expressway.

The Chairman, Board of Trustees (BoT), of the rights group, Dede Uzor A Uzor, while making the presentation also announced the donation of N10,000 to one police officer, Clifford One, who sustained injury on the head while escaping mob action.

The police inspector, attached to Central Police Station (CPS), was said to have fallen from a police vehicle and hit his head on the ground.

He was first taken to New Hope Hospital where he was receiving treatment before being transferred to another hospital in Enugu.

Announcing the donations in Onitsha on Monday, the Chairman of the group said that the beneficiaries of the token largess were mainly widows who were affected by the incident.

He added that the money would be shared among 20 widows even as he hailed the gallantry of the officer and his colleagues, describing the mob action as unfortunate.

He said: “Although the mob were said to have been angered by the absence of fire fighters during the inferno, but it was not unlikely that they were suspected criminals who wanted to seize the opportunity to loot traders’ wares."

The Divisional Police Officer (DPO), Central Police Officer, Onitsha, Ifeanyi Iburu, commended the group for its magnanimity and enjoined others to emulate the gesture.

He said the unfortunate incident would not deter police from performing its primary responsibility of protecting life and property.

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