The La Dadekotopon Municipal Assembly (LaDMA) has stated that the three-storey building that collapsed was being put up without a building permit.
Speaking to the Daily Graphic in a telephone interview yesterday, the Municipal Chief Executive (MCE), Ms Rita Odoley Sowah, said the owner of the building did not pay heed to several orders to stop work on the building without permit.
She indicated that the last date a warning to stop work was issued was June 3 when the tools being used were seized.
She, however, said “we were in the process to get a permit for them but while we were doing that they were also working, which shouldn’t have been the case”.
For a building permit to be issued, Ms Sowah said before a building was put up officers from the Assembly would have to inspect the foundation to ensure it was strong and also inspect after the building had been constructed.
That, she said, was followed by a habitation permit if the inspectors satisfied themselves that the construction had been carried out properly and a certificate of habitation issued.
When asked about the next line of action to be taken by the Assembly after the disaster, she said “henceforth we are looking at taking legal action against people who are recalcitrant when we ask them to stop and they don’t”.
Meanwhile, the police say they are set to begin criminal investigations into the collapse, last Saturday, of a building under construction at Cantonments in Accra, which claimed three lives and injured 18 people.
Speaking to the Daily Graphic yesterday, the District Commander of the Cantonments Police, Superintendent Brown Mercy Wilson, said “we are about to begin criminal investigations into the collapse of the building because there is an element of criminality about it”.
She said whoever was found culpable after investigations were completed would be sent to court and dealt with according to the law.
At the time the Daily Graphic called on the Cantonments police for an update on last Saturday’s disaster, some policemen were being sent to the site of the disaster to relieve others who had already been deployed there to ward off intruders.
Supt Wilson said the night watch would be kept by the Police Special Weapons Attack Team (SWAT), all in a bid to stay off people who might want to trespass on the property.
She also said an autopsy would be done on the bodies that had been deposited at the Police Hospital morgue for a coroner’s inquest.
Supt Wilson added that as of yesterday there were four victims of the disaster still on admission at the 37 Military Hospital, while one of the injured on admission at the Police Hospital had been transferred to the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital.
She indicated that all of the patients were responding to treatment, including a victim who was rushed to the 37 Military Hospital while in an unconscious state, who had since regained consciousness and was no more in a neck collar.
Supt Wilson gave an assurance that the police had the full list of the victims of the disaster and would assist all those alive to regain their health.
Last Saturday about 1:30 p.m., a three-story building that was under construction collapsed trapping workers who were on the site and injuring 18 of them, while three persons, including the owner of the building, Dr Prosper Adabla, died in the disaster.
Reports from the police gave the likely cause of the collapse as a defect in one of the pillars that weakened the structure which had reached the second floor before the incident happened.
Subsequently, rescue workers consisting of officials of the National Disaster Management Committee (NADMO), the Ghana National Fire Service, the Ghana Police Service and the military were on hand to pull out those who were trapped under the rubble.
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