Joe Effiong, Uyo,

More than 4000 people, mostly members of the Yoruba community in Akwa Ibom State, have been rendered homeless following an early morning inferno that ravaged about 200 houses in Iwoukpom community in Ibeno Local Government Area of the state on Friday. 

Properties destroyed in the incident cannot however be quantified but the distraught victims said  they ran into hundreds of millions of naira.

A resident and native of the area, Ukochio Okon told our correspondent that fire incident is a perennial occurrence in the fishing settlement.

“It happened last year; it happened year before last; even three years ago, we suffered it. Something should be done about it,” he said.

One of the victims, Mrs Victoria Udoh,  said she was at a night vigil in her church when her friend informed her on phone that her house had been burnt to ashes.

A mother of three children, Mrs Udoh said she could not pick a pin out of her property when she rushed down from the church.

“The entire building was raised completely and I could not pick a pin in the House,” she lamented.

She called on the state government, public spirited individuals, multinational companies and NGOs to come to their rescue, as she does not have room on her head anymore.

Udoh called on National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and State Emergency Management Agency to provide relief materials to the affected victims to ameliorate their suffering.

Mr Sunday Isokobo, Vice Chairman, Ibeno local government area described the inferno as a “serious disaster”, saying that the fire was so serious that nobody could penetrate when it was burning.

“About 1a.m. this morning, I received a call from my brothers and sisters living in this fishing settlement at Iwoukpom, that there was a very serious fire disaster taking place here,” he said.

Isokobo however, said that nobody could give the cause of the inferno as at the time the reporter was filing his report and added that no life was lost during the inferno.

He promised to give relief materials to the affected families to ameloriate the suffering of the victims and called on the state government, oil companies to come to the aid of the affected.

The youth leader of Ibeno LGA, Mr Kingsley Asuquo expressed dissatisfaction over the incident.

“It is pathetic and the people have lost everything in their life, so there is no word that is qualified to explain the circumstances,” he stated.