The Kaneshie Market Complex in Accra was on Saturday night set on fire leaving behind destroyed shops and property whose value is yet to be determined.
One suspected arsonist responsible for the Kantamanto Market fire, the inferno preceding the Kaneshie Market, has been arrested by security agents and the intelligence community working together to crack the recent spate of marketplace fires to visit Accra.
The security agents are on the trail of other suspects in connection with the fires, DAILY GUIDE has learnt.
Daniel Dah Kormlah, 41, whose suspected role in the Kantamanto fire could proffer a clue to the security agencies about the Accra fires, is already in the grips of the police.
The said Kormlah was arrested at his Ho hideout in the Volta Region by a joint team of police and intelligence operatives last Friday evening, a day before the Kaneshie Market fire.
Details gathered about the suspect show that he is an active member of a number of NDC political platforms such as NDC Group Administrators, Renaissance Agenda 2020, among others.
The suspect’s phone records provided revealing clues about his chats with others geared towards rioting and possible conspiracy to attack state institutions.
He has already agreed to be engaging with like-minded persons to execute acts constituting breaches of the peace of the nation.
More suspects are expected to be picked up in the following days by security agencies who are reported to have heightened intelligence gathering on the suspected acts of arson.
Efforts are underway to provide the necessary security in markets and other public places in the run-up to Xmas and the New Year celebrations.
Kaneshie Market Fire
The Kaneshie Market Complex was on fire close to midnight on Saturday, prompting questions as to whether or not the series of fires at especially marketplaces couldn’t be the handiwork of arsons.
But for the efforts of firefighters from the Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS), damage to property would have exceeded what was recorded.
According to Divisional Officer I Ellis Robinson Okoe, Head of Public Affairs at the GNFS Headquarters in Accra, “we received a distress call at 2312hrs.”
Within seventeen minutes, he said firefighters were at the scene of the fire.
“We observed that the fire had engulfed nine shops used as a fabric shop, tailoring shop and a warehouse,” he added.
Three fire tenders were deployed to subdue the inferno which gutted six shops and leaving three others partially burnt.
It took close to an hour to extinguish the blaze whose billowing smoke was detected a long distance away from the fire scene.
Police Report
On their part, the Ghana Police Service report that they received word about a fire outbreak at the Kaneshie Market close to midnight last Saturday.
Giving details about their response, the Greater Accra Regional Public Relations Officer of the Police Service, DSP AfiaTengey, said upon receiving information about the fire, “Police proceeded to the scene and secured the place and information relayed to the GNFS.
“All patrol vehicles within the Kaneshie Division including police motorbikes and those of Odorkor were called to the scene to cordon off the place,” she added.
Even before the GNFS personnel arrived at the scene, she went on, the security personnel of the market and some police officers from the Kaneshie Barracks started fighting the fire with the fire extinguishers placed at vantage points at the facility.
At about 23:30hours, she said DO1 Pobee from the Operations outfit of the GNFS with 15 firefighters on board three fire tenders from Dansoman and the Greater Accra Regional Fire Service detachment arrived at the scene. The fire was eventually extinguished, according to the police, at about midnight.
About 12 shops mostly dealing in fabrics were burnt, the estimated cost of which has not been determined. No casualties were recorded.
Continuing, the police said according to the first security man of the market who detected the fire, the cause of the fire could be electrical.
He said he saw smoke billowing from the fuse box in front of one of the burnt shops during a routine patrol of the facility.
DOI Pobee, the officer who led the fight against the fire, told the police that a detailed report would be submitted to the relevant authorities when investigations are completed.
Conspiracy Theory
Given the frequency of market fire outbreaks in the nation’s capital in recent times, a conspiracy theory has been triggered among not only victims of the fires but observers outside the facilities. The recent fire to hit the nation’s capital at the sprawling Kantamanto Market robbed over 2,000 traders of their source of their daily bread. Some of the victims said they had been warned by NDC activists that they would suffer a fire outbreak for voting for the NPP.
Although this has not been substantiated, there is a strong correlation between the fires and the Ofosu Ampofo infamous covert and overt operations by the NDC to make the country insecure as contained in the leaked audio which has landed him in court.
Even before the Kantamanto Market fire, the hawkers market at Odawna was gutted by a strange fire.
The conspiracy theory was not left out of this fire too. In both fires, victims have pointed at the hands of arsonists.
The security agencies especially the police and the GNFS have been called upon to mount guard over markets in especially Accra and Kumasi, including state assets, not forgetting fuel filling stations.
The Abossey Okai Spare Parts Market is another target of some bad persons who are set to torch it too.
Daniel Kormlah’s arrest would offer important clues about the Accra fires and future overt and covert operations of a disgruntled political grouping.
By A.R. Gomda & Linda Tenya-Ayettey