AN EIGHT-YEAR-OLD boy, resident in Mangotsonya, a suburb of Ningo in the Ningo-Prampram Constituency, is reported dead after a building collapsed on him, burying his body in the process.
Benjamin Tetteh was a kindergarten pupil of Mangotsonya District Assembly (D/A) Basic School.
The disaster which happened at about 7pm on Monday April 9, 2012, rendered several hundreds of people at Mangotsonya and Ayetepa, a suburb of Mangotsonya, homeless.
Narrating the incident to Matthew Sylvester Tetteh, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) parliamentary candidate for the constituency, on his tour of the area to empathize with the bereaved and displaced families, an aunty to the deceased said the building collapsed on Benjamin after the rainstorm blew off the roofing and weakened the foundations of the building.
“The family was taking cover in their rooms when the wind started blowing. Benjamin was fast asleep in the room so he could not escape when the other members foresaw the disaster and started rushing out,” the aunty narrated.
She explained that both parents and six siblings of the deceased were receiving treatment at the Battor Catholic Hospital, indicating that one of the siblings was badly hurt on the face.
Touring the community with Mr. Tetteh was Al Latiff Amanor, the Constituency Chairman and Madam Tetteh, the area’s party Women’s Organizer, among a host of NPP supporters in the Constituency. DAILY GUIDE observed that the rainstorm had uprooted several huge trees, ripped off school buildings and a four-unit teachers’ bungalow.
Some families were spotted counting their losses.
Some of the victims told the NPP team that the casualties would have been higher should the rainstorm occur in the day, explaining that most of the indigenes of the area usually sat under the trees which the rainstorm uprooted.
“Some roofing sheets were blown onto the school premises,” a victim recalled.
Addressing the victims, Mr Tetteh described it as very unfortunate the disaster that had befallen them.
He expressed worry over the lackadaisical attitude of the government and National Disaster Management Organization (NADMO) in reaching out to the victims, wondering why three days after the disaster, no relief item had been sent to the victims.
He said, “This is very bad. Nobody is bothered about where these people have been putting up in the night since Monday. They have lost their buildings to a rainstorm and nobody is rushing to their aid.”
Mr Tetteh entreated the NPP family to garner their resources to provide decent accommodation to the hundreds of people whose buildings had been destroyed and also provide them with some financial assistance to help the people restart their businesses.
Matthew lamented, “I have come to witness the extent of damage in both Mangotsonya and Ayetepa, and I want to tell my NPP family that if we would wait for this slow government, my people would continue to be at the mercy of the weather. I need them to come to my aid to alleviate the plight my people are going through.”
Source: Razak Mardorgyz Abubakar/Daily Guide
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