Services of US fire experts is free – Gov’t

The Government of Ghana would not pay for the services of the United States of American (USA) team, which is in Ghana to assist in the investigation into recent fire outbreaks in parts of the country.

The team of forensic experts from Uncle Sam, USA, is currently in Kumasi to investigate the fire that gutted the Kumasi Central market and razed down numerous shops and destroyed properties.

Mr Ibrahim Murtala Mohammed, Deputy Minister of Information and Media Relations, who announced these at the daily press briefing at the Flagstaff House in Accra on Monday, said additional investigators from the USA would soon join their colleagues in the inquest.

He said “Government is not paying a dime for the Americans,” adding that there was the possibility of arson, as suggested by President John Mahama, when he toured some of the arrears affected by fire outbreak.

Mr Mohammed said he did not agree with people who castigated the President for saying that arson could have been a possibility cause of the fires.

The Deputy Minister said the fires “were just beyond the ordinary”, adding that if the cause of the fires were rats as some have suggested, “then our homes should be in flames.”

Source: GNA