Police intensify search for Tema market arsonist
The Police in Tema has intensified its search for the suspected arsonist who attempted to burn down the Tema market last Tuesday night. It has also instituted day and night patrols in and around the market at Tema Community One.
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The intensified search is as a result of public concerns expressed over the exhibits retrieved from the fire scene which included foam, suspected to have been soaked with a chemical to start the fire , candles and a bag which was partly melted by the fire .
The police had not arrested any culprit at the time of writing this story.
In an interview with the Daily Graphic at Tema, the Tema Regional Police Commander, DCOP Maxwell Atingane, appealed to the traders to be alert and report any new development to the security.
He gave the assurance of police support to ensure they operated in a safe environment .
DCOP Atingane urged the public to discard the notion that the incident was possibly caused by a dranged or mentally ill person.
He said it was necessary to ensure safety at the market to prevent loss of property and human lives .
DCOP Atingane noted that such situations must be taken seriously because they could be dangerous to society .
He described the fire incident as real because according to him , the tables were parked against the entrances of the various shops for safety and the fire was started there.
He stated that it was fortunate that there were no lights in the vicinity and therefore the security personnel of the assembly spotted the first flame that shot up .
DCOP Atingane said they would have been telling a different story if the fire had not been spotted .
He said the police , BNI and any other security network in the metropolis had been mobilised to assist in day and night patrol duties to track down the suspects.
DCOP Atingane said until the police came out with the findings of their investigations, the public must not fabricate stories which would put fear and panic in the traders .
The fire was spotted at about 11 p.m. on Tuesday, July 2, 2013, by security personnel of the Tema Metropolitan Assembly through whose efforts the fire was put off.
Narrating the incident, the Metropolitan Chief Executive, Mr Kempes Ofosuware, said because of the load-shedding, security personnel of the TMA had intensified their patrol duties in and around the market.
He said due to darkness around the area, it was easier to spot the fire at the Community One main station where vehicles loaded from Tema to Accra with stalls lining up as boundaries for the market.
Mr Ofosuware announced that the TMA had constituted a Task Force comprising the personnel from the BNI , Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) , Ghana Police Service (GPS), TMA Security and other supporting agencies to help track down the suspected arsonist.
He said the team would be expected to patrol the vicinity of the market to protect it from the suspicious moves of arsonists .
By Rose Hayford Darko