Blame government for Labadi explosion – Senyo Hosi

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Chamber for Bulk Oil Distributors (CBOD), Senyo Hosi has blamed Thursday’s explosion at the Labadi gas station on government’s failure to hold accountable persons culpable for similar incidents that happened previously.

A gas explosion at Labadi on Thursday evening, killed 5 persons leaving 42 others with various degrees of injury. Reports suggest the absence of two bolts supposed to fasten the lid of a gas tanker at the Louis filling station resulted in leakages that eventually led to the explosion.

In an interview with GhanaWeb, Mr. Hosi said government has totally failed in ensuring that persons responsible for such errors are held answerable to the law. He recounted a similar incident on June 3 last year which killed about 150 people and left several others injured, indicating that the perpetrators were let off easily; the reason he says accounts for the laissez-faire attitude to safety within the industry.

“I think government has been totally lapsed, and I don’t think that they’ve been fair with the people. We never hold people accountable for lapses in safety and in their services at any point in time. June 3 happened over a year ago and nobody held the people responsible…..Nobody should go scot-free, everybody goes scot-free in this country, he stated.

He stated that despite the inevitable occurrence of such accidents, a greater part of the blame should be pushed on government and officials whose failure to enforce the law has cost people their very lives.

“How many people who died last year have been compensated?, you give people pure water and carry human beings and dump them in trucks as if they are trash...you see Ghanaians as statistics, Ghanaians are not statistics, ….you are killing people by your action….who do we hold people accountable, let them pay”, an avid Hosi said.

He challenged government to set the appropriate bodies to look into the actual cause of the explosion and hold the culprits answerable accordingly, to deter others in the industry from repeating such blunders.