Prez Mahama: Evidence was destroyed at Kumasi Market fire site
President John Mahama has stated that an investigation by US experts into a fire at the Kumasi Central Market was inconclusive because people had gone to the site to destroy evidence before the experts arrived.
Advertisement
"The Kumasi one was inconclusive because by the time they got there people had gone in and destroyed much of the evidence and so they could not find anything concrete that they could use to investigate,” he said.
The Kumasi Central Market fire in July razed down tens of shops, destroying properties worth hundreds of thousands of Ghana Cedis.
The President added that a second investigation carried out by the experts revealed that the Makola Market fire which occurred in June was caused by an electrical fault.
He said: “With regards to the Makola mall one, they traced the source of the fire to an electrical problem. When they traced it, they found that the fire had started around where that illegal connection had been done.”
President Mahama made this known when the Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection, Nana Oye Lithur, led leaders of market fire victims in the Greater Accra Region to call on him at the Flagstaff House.
He added that investigations into fires at other markets had returned inconclusive results.
Prior to the investigations, the President had suggested that arsons could responsible for the rampant market fires, which also affected the Kantamanto Market in Accra.
About 4,500 traders in the affected markets saw their livelihoods threatened, prompting the government to offer assistance in the form of a GH₵2million fund.