The Kumasi Court Complex was a scene of commotion on Wednesday as judges, lawyers, prosecutors and parties seeking justice tried to outdo one another as they ran for their lives when some of the offices in the complex caught fire.
They ran out of the courtrooms when they saw thick smoke bellowing from one of the chambers on top of Circuit Court Three.
Proceedings at some of the courts were suspended, as the damage caused was such that those courts could not sit again.
The building houses two High Courts, Circuit Court Three and the chambers of three judges.
Fire
The fire, which lasted less than an hour, completely burnt the chambers of Mr Ekow Mensah, a Circuit Court judge, and that of Mr Justice Apenkwah, a High Court judge, while part of the chambers of Mr Justice Kossi Efo Kaglo was damaged.
All documents, dockets, previous rulings, law reports and exhibits kept in the chambers of the judges were destroyed in the fire.
According to a prosecutor at the court, Chief Inspector Joe Debrah, smoke was seen coming out of one of the rooms, a situation which compelled the people, including the judges, to run out of the courtrooms to safety.
Firefighters from the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital Fire Station were on hand to douse the flames.
They were joined by their colleagues from the Kumasi Metro Fire Service Station located near the court.
Effect
Mr Justice Kaglo said the incident would greatly affect justice delivery in the region, since cases whose dockets were burnt in the fire would have to start afresh.
Besides that, he said, evidence on cases before the judges had been lost and that would affect the ruling in those cases.
Official
The Ashanti Regional Administrator of the Judicial Service, Mr Noel Agodzo, said it was too early to determine the cause of the fire and that he would have to wait for a report by the Fire Service before he could make any comment on the incident.
Source:graphiconline.com
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