In a bizarre twist to the market infernos, leading elements of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), have blamed the fire outbreaks in major markets, which destroyed goods and properties worth billions of cedis on mice, as they tried to rubbish President John Mahama’s position that, the six random fires disasters could be the work of arsonists.

The NPP stalwarts including its National Chairman, Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey, who were last week separately struggling on various Accra-based radio stations rationalizing their ‘mice theory’, claimed that the rodents had eaten the rubber covers of the electrical wires, hence the fires.

Mr. Obetsebi-Lamptey in particular, told Citi FM last Friday that the fires could have been sparked by two positively charged naked cables upon a contact, describing the government’s position on the fires as reckless and irresponsible, adding, such comments rather drive away foreign investors.

Meanwhile, intelligence picked by The Herald indicates that the next target on the roll of these arsonists is the Kaneshie and Tema markets all in the Greater Accra Region. They intend moving to some markets in regional capitals across the country.

Dome, Aglogbloshie, Makola 1 and 2, Kantanmanto, Madina and Mallam has at various times been razed down by fire.

Both Dr. Owusu Akoto-Afriyie, NPP Member of Parliament (MP) for Kwadaso Constituency and Dr. Clement Briammah, the NPP’s Northern Regional Secretary on Agoo 103.5 FM’s Saturday’s Back Page programme, suggested electrical faults was responsible for the market fires.

Mr. Obetsebi-Lamptey, who is one of the petitioners in the ongoing Election Petition at the Supreme Court, claiming a stolen verdict, distanced the NPP from the fires, and professed that the NPP could have chosen violent means to reclaim the election verdict, but instead resorted to a peaceful means by going to the Supreme Court.

Dr. Owusu-Afriyie Akoto, the Kwadaso MP from the Ashanti Region, also declared on Agoo FM that the fires were caused by power fluctuation, popularly known as “dumso dumso”, adding that the markets had lots of illegal connections, and these are to be blame for the fire outbreaks.

Dr. Clement Briammah, however, went berserk raining insults on President Mahama, describing his comments as “irresponsible” for suggesting the fires could be caused by saboteurs, even though the President mentioned no name whilst commenting on the issue, during his visit to the disaster scene last week.

It appears some strange things do happen in the country anytime the NPP is not in power.

It would be recalled that sometime in 1996 when President John Jerry John Rawlings won the election, bombs exploded in Tema.

1996 to 2000 witnessed the infamous barbaric serial killing of women, which created panic in the country, particularly among women. 34 women were killed in that gruesome episode which was used against the Rawlings regime as political weapon by the NPP. The killings strangely stopped when they won power.

Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, the first President of the land also had his fair share of bombs thrown at him by the forbearers of the Danquah-Busia tradition, some of whose children are now running the affairs of the party.

An overwhelmed Dr. Kwame Nkrumah at the time felt unsafe and had to pass the infamous Preventive Detention Act (PDA), which led to the jailing, without trial of the likes of Mr. Emmanuel Odarkwei Obetsebi-Lamptey, father of NPP Chairman and J.B Danquah etc, an uncle of Nana Akufo-Addo. They both died in prison.

President John Dramani Mahama has meanwhile, directed the state security agencies to declare a security alert at all important public buildings and installations across the country.

A twenty five thousand Ghana Cedis (GH¢25,000) package has also been announced to reward any person who provides information leading to the arrest of suspected arsonists.

The directive, according to the Chief of Staff, Prosper Bani, follows updated security briefings received by the President on the recent fire outbreaks in various markets in the country.

President Mahama has also visited the site of the latest fire incident; the Makola No. 2 in Accra, where the Chief Fire Officer Brigadier General Bosco Guyiri and the Greater Accra Regional Minister, Julius Debrah briefed him.

“By directing a security alert at all such installations and instituting the reward package, the President was convinced that the general public would also be vigilant and watch out for saboteurs within their communities who may be planning to cause damage to public property”, a statement signed last Friday by Mr. Bani stated.

According to the Chief of Staff, the Regional Security (REGSEC) and District Security Councils (DISEC) have also been directed to work with the respective market associations to put in place watchdog teams to provide adequate security for the markets.

They are also to ensure the deployment of uniformed and plain clothed police and military teams to all important public installations in their jurisdictions.