Court building collapses injuring two

Accra, April 26, GNA - Two persons sustained injuries on Wednesday after a portion of a two-storey building at the 28th February Courts Complex known as Cocoa Affairs Courts in Accra collapsed. They are Sammy Agbodo who runs errand at the premises and Mr Samuel Kumi a security officer at the Judicial Service. They are on admission at the Social Security and National Insurance (SSNIT) hospital at Osu, Accra.

When the GNA got to the scene, it learnt that the building collapsed about 1430 hours when some of the courts were sitting. Debris as well as volumes of old dockets and scantlings were scattered on the ground with blood splashed in front of High Court 12 Madam Millicent Annan a staff of the Service who escaped unhurt said she was talking to Mr Kumi when particles from the building kept dropping on her and she moved a little away and the building suddenly collapsed, trapping her and others, including Kumi and Agbodo. Mrs. Regina Abotsi, Judicial Secretary of the Service who arrived at the scene described the incident as unfortunate.

Mrs Abotsi admitted that the building was old and weak saying, 'the cost of repair will mean having a new structure'.

Mr Prince Ashie Neequaye, a member of the Ghana Bar Association said the "whole building is a ramshackle structure, which needed to be pulled down.

"This could have happened to even a judge and it is about time the Chief Justice and the authorities concern thought seriously about the Cocoa Affairs complex".

The Cocoa Affairs complex, which was built in 1927, had not seen any major rehabilitation. Garages where Judges parked their vehicles are at the mercy of the whether.