Fire Service personnel dousing the flames
One of the Metro Mass Transit (MMT) buses with portraits of President John Mahama and other former presidents, which was travelling from Accra to Cape Coast, caught fire midway through the journey when two of its tyres exploded on the Kasoa-Cape Coast highway yesterday afternoon.
No casualty was recorded in the incident that drew milling residents to the scene.
According to Joy Fm, one of the back tyres of the bus with registration number GR 5182-15 exploded when it reached Adom City, a community along the highway.
Alarmed by the incident, the driver decided to stop, and another explosion reportedly occurred.
According to a passenger on board, minutes after the bus had stopped, the other back tyre exploded, causing some passengers to jump through the window of the vehicle to safety.
The witness added that the passengers, numbering more than 30, escaped unhurt.
Although the Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) was called to intervene, it took more than 30 minutes before personnel got to the scene.
A fire officer said they were not on time because the phone call went to the headquarters in Accra before it was transferred to them.
Even though the firemen were able to put out the blaze, there was little to salvage from the bus as it was burnt completely.
The MMT buses were steeped in controversy following the spending of over GH¢3.6million to rebrand them with the portraits of then President Mahama and the former presidents under the previous National Democratic Congress (NDC) administration.
The juicy contract was given to Smarthys, a company owned by Sellasie Ibrahim, a campaigner for John Mahama’s re-election last year, ostensibly to give him (Mahama) an electoral advantage, but ended up becoming his waterloo.
