Some A.M.A Officials To Face Court Over Nii Boi Town Disaster

The Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) said it is in the process of prosecuting there of its officials who were interdicted and arrested over the collapse of a 6-storey building at Nii Boi Town in Accra.

The three building inspectors including George Benefo, Geeorge Agyare and Frank Lartey, work at the Okaikoi North Sub-metro of the Assembly as inspectors and were found liable for acts of negligence as they failed to follow proper procedure in their monitoring activities.

Information gathered from the A.M.A is that the Mayor, Dr. Alfred Okoe Vanderpuije, who became a figure of ridicule soon after the collapse of the building, even though he does not do inspections on buildings, has called for an investigations into the incident and also task the security agencies to investigate and determine whether the three officials arrested have been receiving some form of inducement from the building owner in the course of their duties.

It has also emerged that the building inspector of the Okaikoi North Sub-metro Assembly, Christian Ababio, who had been arrested on the orders of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) Chief Executive, Dr Alfred Vanderpuije during the Melcom Disaster, was the person working as inspector of the Nii Boi Town Building which collapsed last Thursday.

Information trickling in is that, Christian Ababio would also have had a role to play in the current disaster.

Prior to the latest development, a statement signed by the Mayor of Accra, Dr Alfred Okoe Vanderpuije, he indicated that the Assembly has launched investigations into the incident and has resolved to arrest the three officials for the roles they played which led to the disaster.

“They have been interdicted for 6months without pay,” the Mayor stated in the release.
The Mayor also put it on record that the owner of the building, Mr. Omari has been arrested for not having title to the land on which the building was constructed, and that Mr. Omari failed to obtain development and building permits.

“Mr. Omari failed to stop construction works when he was served with three (3) “stop work” notices by A.M.A,” he indicated.

The mayor noted that the decisions taken by the Assembly were recommendations from a committee’s investigation launched into the development.

He pointed out that all the suspects including the three A.M.A officials and the Owner of the collapse building, Mr. Omari have been handed over to the Ghana Police Service for further investigations and prosecution.

Last Thursday at about 4:15am, the six-storey uncompleted building collapsed at Nii Boi town, a suburb of Accra, in which about five people were reported to have been trapped with one confirmed dead.



The yet-to-be completed building is located behind the Grand View Hotel.

However, soon after the disaster there have been calls on the President to fire the Mayor, with accusations that he failed to do due diligence.

Meanwhile, it emerged that the construction of the building has been stopped several times by the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) because it has no building permit but the owner of the building paid deaf ears to it and continued with the construction, probably because of the help he received from the three suspected officials.

The Mayor, Dr Alfred Okoe Vanderpuije, has also ordered that the Grand View Hotel which is also situated in the same compound with the collapsed building be evacuated and shut down with immediate effect.

According to the Mayor, the Grand View Hotel needs to be subjected to a complete and thorough assessment to verify safety of people occupying it.

The Mayor assured the general public that the A.M.A is committed to ensuring the safety of all buildings in the Metropolis.

The case according to our investigation is being investigated under the care of Chief Superintendent Lydia Donkor of the Tesano Divisional Police.