Three in police grip

… Over fire at Foreign Ministry
Posted: The Chronicle | Fri, 23 Oct 2009

By Charles Takyi-Boadu

Three persons are being questioned at the Police Headquarters in Accra following Wednesday's fire outbreak, which gutted the ten-storey building office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The three, who are said to be members of a private security firm, are being held on suspicion of either causing, or being part of a group that set the fire.

They were said be around when the fire started, and therefore are suspected to have knowledge about the inferno.

The Greater Accra Regional Police Commander, Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP), Rosemary Bio Atinga, told The Chronicle yesterday that the three were picked up by her men on Thursday morning, but later had to be transferred to the headquarters of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID), for further interrogation.

She however declined to give the names and identities of those arrested for security reasons.

Considering the magnitude of the fire outbreak, and the 'strange' circumstances under which it started, she said the police suspected foul play, and that it could be the handiwork of arsonists.

For this reason, the Regional Police boss said that they had set up a taskforce, made up of crack detectives from both the National and Regional headquarters, to unravel the mystery surrounding the entire incident.

ACP Bio Atinga has thus charged members of the public, who may be privy to some form of information, to volunteer it to the police.

She appealed to those who intend to go to the scene of the incident, to stay away to enable the police conduct unimpeded and thorough investigations.

The Foreign Affairs Minister, Alhaji Muhammed Mumuni, who is currently attending a programme in Malawi, has expressed utter dismay at the incident.

In an interview with the paper from his Malawi base yesterday, Mr. Mumuni said he was shocked when he heard the news, and that he was even making preparations to catch a flight back home.

“It is a calamity that is of the greatest proportion, with serious implications for the Ministry and the country,” he said, and called on the police to conduct a thorough forensic investigation into the incident.

Whilst appreciating the fact that it was too early to jump to any conclusions, Mr. Mumuni could not fathom how and why any reasonable human being would deliberately set fire to a building which serves the interest of the country.

Meanwhile, President Mills has ordered immediate investigations into the circumstances leading to the fire outbreak on Wednesday night, which took fire fighters several hours to bring under control.

Speaking with journalists after touring the scene of the incident, the President indicated that the investigations should be able to establish what might have caused the fire.

“I am not interested in scapegoats; I am not interested in witch-hunting. I am only interested in the truth, and once the truth is unearthed, we will know how to deal with cases of this nature,” he emphasised.

He empathised with the workers whose offices were affected by the incident, and assured them of alternative accommodation from government, saying “we are seriously looking for alternative accommodation, and we will, in the next few days, find you offices from which you can continue with your work.” The fire destroyed virtually everything in the ten-storey building, except the first and sixth floors.