A five-year-old girl was crushed to death when a building collapsed on her during a heavy downpour at Ada Magazine, a suburb of Koforidua in the New Juaben South Municipality of the Eastern Region last weekend.
Kukua Esther (deceased), was in the room with her seven-year-old brother when the back of the concrete block chamber and hall room of the compound house suddenly collapsed on them while their mother was cooking in the kitchen.
The deceased whose head was smashed in the process, has been deposited at the Koforidua Government Hospital mortuary for preservation and autopsy while the sibling was receiving treatment at the same hospital.
Their mother, Diana Labotey, told the Ghanaian Times in an interview that she was in the kitchen with the children when they said they were feeling cold because of the rain “so I told them to go into the room. About 10 minutes later I heard a loud sound and quickly rushed into the room only to discover that the back of the building had collapsed on the children.”
According to her, the police and officials from National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) have been to the scene and have begun investigations into the tragedy.
The latest incident brings to nine the number of collapsed buildings across the country within the past four months with three deaths and 62 people sustaining injuries.
On May 1, 2023, an uncompleted three-storey building collapsed at SDA Junction near KPOGAS Furniture at Adentan in Accra where one person died and two construction workers suffered serious injuries.
Three days later, on May 4, an uncompleted three-storey building collapsed at Nanakrom in the Adentan Municipality in Accra where one person died and another sustained injuries.
“Again, on May 9, 2023, a three-storey-church building collapsed at old Bortianor in the Ga South Municipality in Accra where seven construction workers sustained injuries leaving one person in critical condition.
Earlier on February 15, March 1 and April 21 respectively, a storey building under construction at Ashongman Estate, a three-storey building at the Royal Gospel Junior High School at Sukura and a warehouse with an adjoining building at Taifa in Accra collapsed.
A dining hall of Ejuraman Senior High School in Ejura in the Ashanti Region collapsed on a group of students trapping and injuring 45 of them but with no casualties recorded.
A six-storey building under construction at the Tamale-UDS City Campus in the Northern Region also collapsed without recording any casualty.
Investigations on the various building collapse cases are yet to be made public.
FROM AMA TEKYIWAA AMPADU AGYEMAN, KOFORIDUA
