Greater Accra Regional Director of the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) Archibald Cobbina says henceforth, markets across the country will be barricaded to prevent people from living there.

He was reiterating comments made by the President during a site visit of the Odawna Market fire which has razed hundreds of stalls down.

Property valued in the thousands of cedis were destroyed in the fire.

Speaking to the media, Archibald Cobbina said it was necessary to wall markets to prevent squatters from living there as their activities often contributed to the fires.

He, however, mentioned that aside the activities of squatters, illegal wiring and the unsafe use of gas cylinders are also major contributors to market fires.

“We are going to barricade the entire area; that is to ensure that at a certain time we can ensure that the markets are closed. Everybody will close it and move out. People who are sleeping in the market, cooking in the market, those are some of the causes,” he said.

He added that, “Apart from the fact that, people get quack repairers to repair their gadgets, people don’t buy the right gadgets to fix in their places, we have a lot of people who are using gas and who are not taking good care and are not handling it very, very well in the market and these are things we have gone ahead to do a lot of education and yet we have people flouting these things in the market.”

He, however, mentioned that the police are yet to determine the cause of the Odawna Market fire.