NPP Elements Might Have Caused Makola Fire Outbreak � NDC Chairman

National Chairman of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), Dr. Kwabena Agyei, has impliedly accused unnamed elements within the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) as having masterminded Tuesday�s fire outbreak at Makola No. 2 market close to Agbogbloshie. Though Dr. Adjei stopped short of naming who those elements could be, he strongly held the notion that the NPP cannot absolve itself from blame and warned against the perpetrators seeking asylum anywhere after attempting to destroy the country. �I�ve travelled to Nigeria before. I�ve stayed there before. Alliance Compliance Order, I know what they did to us. You try to destroy this country and abscond like Ivory Coast, abscond like Togo, abscond to Burkina Faso; then you will see that you are a bunch of �nobodies�. We will show that there are Royals there before Ghanaians,� he said. The Makola Number 2 Market was on Tuesday night razed by fire. It is the latest to have gutted markets in the capital. In fact it�s the fifth market fire in less than two months; with the Kantamanto fire still fresh on the minds of people. The fire destroyed rows of shops and properties leaving the traders helpless. The country has recorded a high number of fire outbreaks across the nation with many of them happening in markets. Some government officials and individuals have alleged that arson could be the cause of the fires due to the intensity and the increase in the number of market fires. Deputy Information Minister, Ibrahim Murtala Mohammed told the media the President is concerned about this development because the series of fires �creates room for some concern and upon that his Excellency the President directed the National Security to commence investigations.� Another government appointee, Deputy Trade Minister and Member of Parliament for Odododiodoo, Nii Lantey Vanderpuije believes saboteurs are behind recent market fires in his constituency. �I don�t believe this one is natural occurrence, six fires all in markets within one month? I don�t believe so,� he said. Asked if it might be intentional, the Deputy Minister answered in affirmative stressing, �I will not rule it out�. But speaking to United Television (Utv) crew at the scene of the devastation, the NDC Chair was emphatic NPP elements could be behind the fire outbreak. He thus warned those behind the unfortunate incident that if their action is informed by any political influence, then �June 4th will revive itself.� �This country belongs to both of us. For our children and our children�s children; and if they have anything at all, this is not the way to go about it. But I do hope that they are not responsible�I want to warn all of us, NDC people, NPP people; everybody that the democracy we are enjoying is the best that we can have anywhere and they should not destroy it,� he stressed. He also strongly called on the security agencies to get to the bottom of the matter by tracing the culprits and ensure that justice takes its course. �I don�t see how the people who are in the market and they have their goods would want to destroy their goods. I think that a determined effort must be taken to fish out those who are responsible for this very unpatriotic way of doing things. �This country is ours. I don�t know where all this is coming from. I only do hope that it is unintentional. If it is intentional, the security forces must bring the people to book. This is the only country we have. There are far too many fire outbreaks in the markets. They can all not be unintentional. This is a day we must all as Ghanaians be sad of,� Dr Kwabena Adjei said.