Fire guts Tamale Aboabo Market

Fire early Tuesday morning gutted portions of the Tamale Aboabo Market, destroying wares and other properties.

Among items destroyed were large quantities of foodstuff that included maize, millet, rice and sorghum.

The lack of access roads into the market made it difficult for personnel of the Fire Service to reach out to the affected stalls on time. Their intervention however helped in containing the raging fire from spreading out to other facilities.

Scores of victims of the fire could be seen wailing over their loss as relations and colleagues consoled them. There were no casualties.

The cause of the fire is yet to be ascertained by the Fire Service.  According to an eye witness however, the fire started at about 2am this morning. He explained that the portion of the stalls that were gutted had not been connected to electricity.

“What I suspect is that the fire might have been started by some wee smokers who often take over the stalls at night as their home and engage in all sort of vices,” he claimed.

The Northern Regional Police Commander, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCOP) Ken Yeboah has therefore ordered that henceforth the market should be closed at 6pm daily and warned that anybody found loitering around the area after that time would be picked up.

According to him, security personnel would be detailed to the market to ensure the compliance of that order as part of measures to stop miscreants from using the stalls as their abode at night to engage in nefarious activities.

The Northern Regional Minister, Alhaji Mohammed Muniru Limuna who was at the scene to console and sympathise with the victims also expressed concern over the activities of scoundrels in the markets and indicated that an investigation would be conducted into the cause of the fire and the culprits punished.

In the meantime the minister assured the victims that officials of the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) have been directed to conduct an inventory on the items lost in the fire to see how the government can support them.

He expressed concern over the growing spate of indiscipline by the youth in the metropolis and advised them to be law abiding since their actions or inactions sometimes resulted in such calamities.

“The most unfortunate thing is that sometimes when such miscreants are arrested for their wrongful behaviours, their relatives and colleagues quickly rush to our chiefs and religious leaders to plead on their behalf thus interfering in the work of the security operatives to ensure law and order,” the minster stated.

The Mayor of Tamale, Abdul-Hanan Gundadow said the market constituted a significant component of revenue generation in the metropolis and indicated that fire posts would be set-up at the major markets in the city to help contain the growing menace of fire outbreaks in the markets.

He said the assembly would also hold stakeholders’ meeting that would include the leadership of the markets to map out strategies for ensuring best practices to avert such calamities in the future.