Five AMA security guards arrested

The security personnel were at the entrance of the Pedestrian Shopping Mall to ensure safety. INSET: One of the victims carrying her sewing machine to safety.Picture: EMMANUEL BAAHFive security guards of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) have been arrested to assist in investigations into last Wednesday’s fire outbreak at the Pedestrian Shopping Mall at Odawna, near the Kwame Nkrumah Circle in Accra.
The five suspects were on duty at the time of the fire outbreak and reportedly made an attempt to put out the fire before calling the Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) when it went beyond their control.
A police source told the Daily Graphic that the arrest of the five security guards did not mean they were culpable.
It said the five security guards had indicated that they were on their usual patrols to drive away persons in the area, when they spotted the fire from one of the kiosks.
The fire, which started around 7:50 pm, destroyed vast amounts of property and could have done more harm but for the swift response of the personnel of the Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS).
Mr Prince Billy Anaglatey, Divisional Officer and Deputy Public Relations Officer of the GNFS, reiterated that traders should desist from cooking and spending the nights in the markets as those activities were major causes of fire.
He urged the AMA to ensure that markets were properly planned with accessible routes for fire engines to use, any time there was such outbreaks.
He suggested that as Ghana strived hard to curb these fire outbreaks, there was the need for authorities to put up a structure in all the markets to house fire officers as one of the measures to deal with such fires at their early stages.
A victim of the fire, Mr Seth Oppong, a boutique owner, said he had lost all his stock in the fire.He also said he lost two shops in the recent fire outbreak at the Kantamanto Market, adding that " Only God can keep me alive to see the future".
Another victim, Mr Fred Otoo, who also lost two shops, said another shop of his wife which was fully stocked with shoes and an amount of
GH ¢12,000, which his wife had kept in the shop for her trading activities, had also been burnt.
By Emmanuel Baah