Market fires were “arson” by Mahama opponents

A pro-government group, Inside Ghana, has claimed that the recent fire outbreaks in some markets in the capital City were arson attacks planned by the governing National Democratic Congress’s political opponents to “sabotage” President John Mahama’s administration.

“Inside Ghana believes it is an arson attack and must be treated as such," the group said in a statement.

“As we count the losses, it will not be out of place to attribute the cause to ill motives of a group of persons who have sworn to make H.E President Mahama’s reign ungovernable."

It added that: “Our call stems from statements of eminent personalities in our political sphere who ought to know better rather than selfishly pursuing their parochial political interest."

“We would recall how on many occasions prior to and after the December elections, some politicians made known their intention unequivocally of making this nation ungovernable."

To buttress its point, the group made reference to an alleged statement made by the General Secretary of the main opposition New Patriotic Party to that effect.

It quoted Mr Owusu Afriyie as having said: “If they make the wrong move by arresting any of our officers, they will know no peace and this country will suffer for that. We are not scared to be arrested but if they try to arrest any of us we will make this country ungovernable.”

Inside Ghana said: “Such unsavoury and unpalatable statements have been repeated on platforms such as the ‘Let My Vote Count Alliance’ whose members have even threatened to throw bombs in their diabolic quest to bastardise State institutions.

“We are therefore convinced beyond any shred of doubt that, these unprecedented fires are indeed arsons with criminal motive. It is a deliberate act to galvanise support for a reckless narcissistic ambition of certain politicians and we can no longer afford to play the ostrich."

Inside Ghana has therefore called on the state security agencies to “launch a full scale forensic investigation into what is gradually becoming a potent weapon for oppression”.

“We are prevailing on the security institutions to launch criminal investigations into this spate of fires that have rendered many of our women and men homeless and left them with no livelihood or any source of income," they said.