Govt goofs on market fires – Kweku Baako

Editor-in-Chief of New Crusading Guide newspaper has cautioned government and security agencies against making speculative comments about the fire outbreaks that have over the weeks struck some markets in the Accra metropolis.

According to him, claims that the recent fires might have been caused by arsonists are premature and asked government to produce evidence to support such claims.

Emphasising his point on Peace FM’s “Kokrokoo” on Wednesday, Kweku Baako pointed out that such sweeping statements and unproven speculations by government and security officials could breed cynicism.

“These things; if officialdom, you shout arson but you don’t follow the train and provide evidence, and we don’t do the prosecution of the suspects; eventually it leads to cynicism and disbelief and mistrust of the system,” he said.

The seasoned journalist also questioned the logic in placing a ransom on the heads of the alleged arsonists and wondered who advised the president to arrive at that conclusion. To him, it would have been apt if the GHC25, 000 was given to the person who identified the perpetrators only after the government, through the help of the security agencies, concluded forensic tests to corroborate their claims.

“But I cannot agree that intelligence services, security services and the President can speculate…They are not entitled to continue speculating,” he insisted.

He also sought answers to the question which seemed to bother his mind; “how did they find the point of explosion?”

Inferring from the findings by the Ghana Fire Service which pointed to the source of the fires that razed the Makola No. 2 market, the New Crusading Guide editor was of the view that if circumstantial evidence by the Service had proven that the incident happened as a result of some technical fault, then, they should “be able to determine what led to the explosion if it’s petrol somebody place there and lighted it, they will know. If it’s electrical fault, they will know…”

Also, touching on the engagement of American experts to assist the Ghanaian security corps to find out the causes of the recent fires , he said the move was an admission that the country’s security or intelligence outfit was not up to task.

The declaration, he stated, meant that “we don’t have the capacity to undertake that particular exercise. So what I think as a nation we should be doing is to look at the option of improving on our intelligence agencies; Fire Service and so forth.”

He, however, was of a strong view that the fire experts engaged by government would do a professional job.

“American (forensics) experts can never be induced to lie. Those people are professionals…Those doing the forensic, look, you can’t get them to lie…,” Kweku Baako said.