The Member of Parliament for the Manhyia South constituency, Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh, has registered his frustration at the fact that: “Ghanaians are treating Ghanaians like foreigners” in the wake of the numerous fire outbreaks across the country.

Using the current incident in Kumasi as a reference point, Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh could not understand the rationale behind the police preventing victims of the fire outbreak from getting close to their burnt down stores.

According to him, “Ghanaians are treating Ghanaians like they are foreigners. The only people who have peace in this country are foreigners. The only people who get away with ‘murder’ in this country are foreigners. I cannot believe that somebody who has lost so much, going to grief, is prevented from doing so…sensible minds would have said, let’s give them time to grief, but not in this country”.

“But in this country, the police will quickly cordon the area that is burnt for people to weep outside. What kind of psychology is in this system”? He asked.

Hon. Opoku Prempeh was of the view that the police should have taken into consideration the psychology of grief, by allowing the victims to have access to their stores because it would help them come to terms with reality.

The representative of the people of Manhyia South cited the reaction of the authorities of the State of Oklahoma in the United States after a tornado carried winds in excess of 200 mph left on it trail destruction to a whole town and the death of 14 people.

Speaking on Metro TV’s “Good Morning Ghana” show, the MP for Manhyia recounted that the victims of the destructive force of the tornado were allowed access to their homes and “that was to help in the recovery process”.

He made these comments on the back of complaints by the traders of the Kumasi Central Market of the locking up of the market by the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly, in waiting for American fire experts.