The Mayor of Kumasi, Mr Osei Assibey Antwi, has said preliminary investigations by the Ghana National Fire Service point to arson in Sunday’s Asafo Market fire, the second which was just a day apart from an earlier one on Saturday.

The Easter Sunday blaze ravaged the shoe market and consumed the entire arena.

Speaking to Benjamin Akakpo on Class91.3FM’s Executive Breakfast Show on Monday, 22 April 2019, Mr Assibey Antwi said the fire officers who were at the scene told him “in the full glare of the media … that looking at how the fire just started and the level of the magnitude, nothing can drive them away from the suspicion that it was an arson”.

“So, straightaway, I had to inform the Regional Minister about the current occurrences, so, now, the Regional Minister has been informed, tomorrow the MESEC will meet, that is at my level and at the level of the Regional Minister, he will also lead the REGSEC and jointly we all look at what to do to curtail the whole situation because we cannot sit down for three days to have three markets going down”.