Vice President Professor Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang has urged strict observance of construction laws and stronger accountability after a building caved in at Avenor, North Kaneshie, close to Melcom Plus.
She spoke on Sunday, June 7, during a visit to the disaster site. One person has died and two others are still stuck under rubble as emergency teams continue their search.
Addressing reporters, she said many such disasters could be avoided if stakeholders follow regulations and safety standards without fail. She pointed out that regulations may not always be welcomed, but they remain vital for safety and order. She added that ignoring them often causes tragedies that could have been prevented.
“There are many things we can all prevent, and it is about doing the right things—we know them. We don’t need to wait. As we are standing here, we are being told that somebody is trapped in there. Why should this happen?“So please, all I am saying is that let us abide by the rules. I said only yesterday or so that rules may not always make sense, and nobody likes them, but we need rules. Otherwise, nothing will function” she said.
The Vice President also demanded a full probe into the collapse and called on all involved to submit to the accountability process. She stressed that lessons must be drawn from the incident to stop repeat events, saying shared duty is crucial to protect lives and property.
“And we need to do proper investigation. We must all open ourselves to be held to account. It’s all of us. This really maybe needn’t have happened. But what could we have done? What do we do to ensure that going forward, we are not seeing many like these? We all know the right things to do. Let us make them possible” she added.
