The Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) for Prestea-Huni Valley, Dr Isaac Dasmani has said the number of casualties in the explosion at Apiate would have gone up if the buildings in the community had not been thatch houses.
He told Dzifa Bampoh on the Key Points on TV3/3FM Saturday, January 22 that his office is currently doing registration of the people to enable the reconstruction of the community start.
“As I speak to you this morning I am engaging the community, my engineers are also on site trying to find out the number of households that we have in this community. Now what we need is the materials to support them to start the reconstruction in earnest. I am meeting the security agencies this morning t wrap up and other things by close of tomorrow so that by Monday we start doing the planning,” he said.
“For now the experts are saying that the place is ok, it is a gas so the moment it exploded everything vanished into the atmosphere. The people also do not want to relocate, they just want to go back. There are some houses that actually the roofs were ripped off, those ones are far away from the road and they just want reconstruction,” he stated.
Regarding the number of casualties so far, he said “The number of death is now 14, it was 13 yesterday…These buildings, fortunately, because they were thatch houses that is why the casualties hasn’t gone up. If you look at the way the whole thing happened if it were to be block houses the casualty would have gone up [but] because the whole place is thatch houses we were able to remove all.”
Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia had also assured that efforts were being made to rebuild the community.
Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia who visited the scenes on Friday, January 21 said ” Government on its part is going to do everything to support the family, to support those who have been injured. Thankfully, the Ambulance Service played a major role in the rescue.
“For the houses that have been destroyed, we are already beginning to think about how to rehabilitate and rebuild for the community. The president has given us the directive, I have spoken to the State Housing Cooperation inclusion with the Mining companies here we will quickly try to put in lace the facilities that will help those who have been displaced.”
“Government is fully engaged in all these processes and we are going to see to it that the people are taken care off.”
The Police had said its preliminary investigation established that a mining explosive vehicle moving from Tarkwa to Chirano mines collided with a motorcycle resulting in the explosion.
“Reference to our earlier emergency public notice, the Police have taken charge of the situation providing security to enable the emergency workers including the Ghana National Fire Service, NADMO and the Ambulance Service to manage the situation.”
“The public has been advised to move out of the area to nearby towns for their safety while recovery efforts are underway. An appeal is also being made to nearby towns to open up their classrooms, churches etc to accommodate surviving victims.”
“Meanwhile, preliminary investigation has established that a mining explosive vehicle moving from Tarkwa to Chirano mines collided with a motorcycle resulting in the explosion. Most of the victims have been rescued and are on admission at various hospitals and clinics within the Bogoso Municipality.”