Kufuor expresses "great shock" at Foreign Ministry fire

Accra, Oct. 22, GNA - Former President John Agyekum Kufuor on Thursday described the news of the burning down of the office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Accra on Wednesday night as "a great shock".

"I deem it a sad day for Ghana that such an office of great importance, which deals with all our negotiations with the rest of the world, should be so ravaged by fire," he said in a statement signed by Mr Frank Agyekum, Spokesperson of the Office of the Former President.

He said the loss in terms of vital documents and material should be incalculable. Mr Kufuor said while joining the rest of the nation in sympathy at the tragic event, he felt a double sense of grief, especially, because he once served as Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs during the Second Republic in the late '60s, and then lately as President of Ghana, he found their work to be invaluable. "I stand in readiness to contribute my quota to the rehabilitation of the Ministry and hope that state agencies will get to the bottom of what caused the fire and put in place measures to forestall its recurrence in other vital state institutions," he said.