Odawna traders demand new market after Wednesday’s fire

Affected and disgruntled petty traders at the Odawna Pedestrian Shopping Mall in the Greater Accra Region have called on government to construct a befitting and modified market to replace the old one, which was razed down by fire on Wednesday night.

The fire destroyed wares of the traders running into thousands of Cedis.

The inferno started around 8:00pm and estimated at destroying about 90 shops and other properties.

It took the Ghana National Fire Service more than four hours to bring the flames under control.

The pedestrian mall was constructed in 2007 by former President John Agyekum Kufuor but has suffered fire outbreaks at least thrice.

Speaking to Onua FM after the latest fire outbreak, the Chairman of the Odawna Pedestrian Shopping Mall, Ernest Mensah, appealed to government to consider building a modified market to replace the old one instead of renovating it with wooden structures, as has been the case in the past.

“There is a vast land over here so we are appealing to the government to take advantage of the situation and build a new market for us to safeguard us from incessant flooding and fire outbreaks.”

He says most of the traders have abandoned their shops due to flooding and fire outbreaks, making the market irrelevant to the public.



Business activities, according to Ernest Mensah, will halt for some time to allow proper investigations to be conducted.