Kejetia market fire outbreak
A Senior Lecturer at the Marketing Department of the Kumasi Technical University KsTU, Dr. Collins Kankam Kwarteng has called for the immediate arrest of managers of the Kejetia new market in the Kumasi Metropolis of the Ashanti.
His call follows revelation that, fire certificate and insurance on the facility had expired for over a year now without renewal.
Speaking to newsmen in Kumasi after visiting the scene on Thursday March 16, 2023 , the Ashanti Regional Fire Commander, ACFO1 Henry Giwah, explained, “so far as I’m concerned they don’t have a fire certificate, but our men are there making sure that things are working. We identified some lapses, we informed management of the market, they promised to fix it for which reason we have not even renewed their certificate. We were going to make sure those things are rectified first. They promised to fix the defects when we wrote to them, that is where we were and the fire occurred”.
He further said, “they actually applied for renewal, and we told them exactly what we want them to do before we can renew. There are minimum qualifications they needed to meet before it could be granted”.
Asked if the GNFS failed managers of the new Kejetia market by watching the illegalities, he said, “maybe you can also say that, but not that our men have been watching unconcerned. They have been doing what they are supposed to do, they have been recommending every now and then. I had the opportunity of bringing this as far as to the Ashanti Regional Security Council (REGSEC)”.
Traders at the Kejetia Market on Wednesday witnessed a devastating fire outbreak destroying some 54 shops and wares worth millions of cedis. It later came out that insurance policy and fire certificate on the facility were not active as it had expired long time ago.
