Legal Agenda: Trader rejects ‘market women cause market fires’ claim

The Head of the Santana Market Association, Comfort Ekuban, has refuted the perception that the market women in the various central markets in the country are the cause of the fire outbreaks witnessed annually.

Speaking on this week’s episode of Legal Agenda on GhanaWeb TV and in the company of a fire service officer, Comfort, rather blamed the market infernos on the negligence of stakeholders.

She further stated that she has been in the market business for 41 years but she has yet to see any form of education from the Ghana National Fire Service on the kind of things they could sell. Hence, the market women can never be blamed for fires in the market.

“Now, you have directed us not to cook in the market. But we should rather be educated on how to cook the right way to avoid fire. Some places are spacious and we cook there. We should just be educated on where to put the gas cylinder when we are cooking. …The fire officer is talking about a fabric that easily catches fire and we must avoid it in our products but in my 41 years of being in the market, I have never heard this information,” Comfort said on Legal Agenda.

With these submissions, Comfort Ekuban believes stakeholders are not doing their jobs as they should, hence the onus of preventing market fires does not lie only on the market women.

Watch the full video of Legal Agenda on GhanaWeb TV below:




JAB/DAG