Odawna fire outbreak: Why blame us for acting professionally? – Police asks

The Ghana Police Service has refuted claims made by some residents at the Odawna market area that the police contributed to the widespread of the fire that gutted the place.

The residents and eyewitnesses told GhanaWeb that the police deployed at the scene denied people entry with the explanation that criminals may bolt with some items when they wanted to offer help to move some of their items that weren’t yet burnt to a safer side.

The Assistant Commissioner at the Nima Divisional Police, ACP Abraham Acquaye, while responding to this claim squashed their reports.

According to him, the police and other security personnel deployed at the fire disaster scene acted professionally.

He continued that the police were there to protect the place so that items retrieved from the scene were not stolen by miscreants.

In an interview with GhanaWeb, ACP Acquaye argued that: “the police as we are mandated by the constitution, Article 200 Clause 3, we are mandated to just maintain law and order and whenever there is any fire disaster, there’s a likelihood that some miscreants want to take undue advantage so that they can loot…I don’t see why they should blame the police because we are here to maintain law and order”.

“Their argument is unfounded; we can’t accept that we were the cause of devastating effect of the fire.” ACP Acquaye indicated.