Gov�t Took No Lessons From Melcom Disaster �Analyst

A Policy Analyst and Lecturer at the Ashesi University, Dr. Lloyd Amoah says policy makers should be made to answer for any life lost to Thursday�s collapse of the Grand View Hotel as according to him, the incident was caused by government�s persistent failure to draw lessons from past events. One person was declared dead while another was found in a critical condition after the uncompleted six storey building collapsed early Thursday morning at Nii Boi Town, near Abeka Lapaz in Accra. Rescue teams drawn from the police, fire service, the military and the national disaster management organization rushed to the scene to clear the rubble to find any survivors. About eighteen persons comprising mainly people living close to the incident have also been displaced by the incident. The incident comes barely two years after the November 7 Melcom disaster which left fourteen (14) dead with sixty-seven (67) sustaining several degrees of injury. Structural integrity of high rise buildings became the topic of the day with the Accra Metropolitan Assembly fingered for failing to enforce building codes. Presidential candidates at the time suddenly halted their campaign trails to empathize with affected families. President, John Dramani Mahamah, who called of his campaign in the Upper East Region and flew back to Accra, ordered for a safety audit of other high-rise buildings to ensure there were no more similar disasters waiting to happen. Municipal assemblies in a frantic attempt to redeem their image set themselves up for the audit. Ghanaians however woke up Thursday to the news of the collapse of yet another high rise building nowhere else than in the national capital with a member of parliament for the area accusing the same Accra Metropolitan Assembly under the leadership of the same Alfred Oko Vanderpuiye for negligence. Commiserating with victims of the incident, Dr. Lloyd Amoah told Kumasi-based Ultimate Radio, the incident was a clear betrayal of the unconcerned attitude of policy makers towards the safety and very existence of the ordinary Ghanaian. He admitted with disappointment that, �for me when the Melcom incident occurred, I was scared that I didn�t have the confidence that some thorough fundamental holistic action would be taken to prevent such an occurrence and here we are, I dare say that this is going to happen again. It is not difficult to foresee.� He charged Ghanaians not to take what he describes as a �worrying and dangerous trend� likely because �those who hold power clearly do not seem to be up to the task and that is why we are having a recurrence but of course the citizens would raise questions and those who hold power are suppose to find the responses if they are concerned about us as a people.� Dr. Lloyd Amoah is of the view that this event is a wake up call to churches, mosques, civil societies, academics and the business fraternity �to find a way to show to our government the displeasure that we feel and the pain that this is inflicting because people are dying, people are losing their limbs and blood is being shed.� Meanwhile police have picked up the contractor who supervised the building of the structure. Moses Abbey was purported to have been warned on several occasions by the Accra Metropolitan Assembly from the confession of the Accra Mayor. But the Owner of the building, one S.K. Omari is yet to be found.