Ex-President JJ Rawlings had a shock of his life when his house was gutted on Valentin's Day
By William Yaw Owusu
Tuesday May 11, 2010
The Ghana National Fire Service says though it has concluded investigations into the fire that ravaged the Ridge residence of former President Jerry John Rawlings, it has no clue as to what caused the fire, immediately setting tongues wagging as to the fire source of the bizarre fire which completely razed down the building.
According to the Head of Public Relations Directorate of the Fire Service, Sam Sowah Oblejumah, the fire men who investigated the Valentine day incident could not established the cause of the inferno.
Mr Sowah Oblejumah told Joy FM yesterday that after months of investigating the incident, investigators’ report was not able to technically pinpoint the cause, but suspected upsurge of power.
“Talking about the cause of the fire, from our report it was undetermined, but it is suspected that during that early hours of 14th February there were power fluctuations so we are suspecting that it might have been caused by the upsurge of an electrical current.”
However a security analyst with Kofi Annan International Peace Training Centre, dr Kwesi Aning described the outcome of the investigation as unacceptable. “It is most unfortunate. The President should let them go back”, he told Joy Fm yesterday.
Dr Aning suggested that the investigators could have used forensic method to probe the incident.
A group calling itself the Ghana Youth Movement (GYM) had threatened to go public if the report of the fire incident in which a New Patriotic Party (NPP), Nana Darkwa Baafi is standing trial is not made public.
The group said it had intercepted a report of
the investigation and if the government failed to release it within the next 14 days it would go public.
Speculations were rife that the February 14, 2010 fire at the Rawlings Ridge residence might have been deliberately orchestrated in order to relocate the former First Family, a comment which landed Nana Darkwa in trouble.
But with the ‘no show’ report from the Fire Service, the speculation is gaining grounds with suggestion that the fire was the handiwork of arsonist who might an insider of the house.
Mr Sowah Oblejumah explained that the outcome was not unusual, since internationally, such incidents are sometimes “technically undetermined.
“What we are telling the public is this, yes we have conducted our investigations, submitted our reports to the National Security Council and the Interior Ministry, and all that we are saying is that, at the time that we conducted our investigations we could not concretely establish the actual cause of the fire.”
He therefore asked the public to shelve all suspicions and stop speculations on the incident because the “professionals” have done their job on it.
Former First Lady, Nana Konadu Rawlings and one of her daughters, Yaa Asantewaa, who were in the house at the time of the fire, escaped unhurt.
On Valentine’s Day on February 14, 2010, Ghanaians woke up to the news that the Ex-President’s residence at North Ridge in Accra had been gutted, destroying property worth millions of Cedis.
But the GYM claims it has intercepted the findings of the investigations leading to the burning of the Ex-President’s house and are threatening to make it public should the government refuse to make public the findings of the committee’s report within 14 days.
A news release issued in Accra and jointly signed by Kwabena Tandoh, Oti Boateng and Nana Prempeh Agyemang, executives of the GYM said the disaster has generated huge public debate and the taxpayers money have been used to conduct investigations into the matter and the government did not have to delay in releasing the report.
“Three months after the unfortunate fire disaster of the First President of the 4th Republic of Ghana, on the 14th of February 2010, which has generated a lot of public debate and also lead to the incarceration of a Ghanaian youth and his subsequent prosecution in court, the country has been very anxious to know exactly what happened and also some recommendations which will be offered by the committee to avoid such disasters in future.”
GYM said “however the committee even though has finished it work after almost three months, the government has failed to make the findings public and this gives much concern to us.”
The group said that “documents that are in the possession of the GYM, eye witness accounts by the security personnel attached to the house, the occupants of the house, and many other statements by the Fire Service personnel that got to the house four minutes after the fire started, and some, findings give rise to future investigations, if what we have seen are the vivid account of their statements to the committee.”
The GYM said “we have our doubt if the committee’s report will be accepted by the one who set it up and the general public since the debris that was supposed to be used by investigators in their investigations as it is done in every fire situation were cleared the following day the house got burnt leaving nothing to be investigated.
“The house was to have been cordoned off until all investigations are done including criminal investigations which could not have been ruled out, and if a forensic investigations was to take place will be impossible to do.”
The GYM said “with the release of the report, the recommendations by the committee will help in preventing such accidents in other state houses, properties and institutions, such as installing smoke detectors in all state houses, and also insuring them if necessary so that the state will not lose much if such disasters happen, especially in the case of rebuilding.
“We hope the committee will heed to our call to make the findings available, to finally clear the minds of every Ghanaian who is much interested to know what exactly happened and the steps we are taking so that such disasters do not happen again,” the GYM said.
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