'Dumsor' vigil to blame for flood and fire disaster – Ga Traditional Council

Even before forensic experts and the presidential committee on the fire and flood disaster of June 3, present their reports; the Ga Traditional Council have offered what in their view caused the national disaster.

According to the Council, the celebrity vigil against erratic power outages known as 'dumsor,' was to blame for the twin disaster that claimed 159 lives in Accra.

President of the Ga Council, Nii Dodoo Tackie, addressing a press conference in Accra today, claimed that the violation of the ban of drumming and noise making by the vigil was the main reason that the twin disasters occurred.

He cited particularly the stadium disaster of May 9, 2001, as a typical instance of how a breach of the ban could have grave consequences.

That single incident resulted in the loss of 129 soccer fans at the Accra Sports stadium during a match between Accra Hearts of Oak and Kumasi Asante Kotoko.

The vigil was organized primarily by actresses Yvonne Nelson, Lydia Forson and hip life artiste Sarkodie, with support from several other players in the showbiz industry, three weeks ago on 16 May, 2015

The Ga state had tried to withhold the peaceful vigil till after the period of the ban but the Osu Stool which claimed to have jurisdiction over the area of the vigil, sanctioned it and the traditional leader of the Osu stool participated in the vigil

The chiefs of the Ga State addressed the press conference after they had visited places that were hard hit by the disasters to ascertain the level of damage.

The Mayor of Accra who went on the tour with the chiefs disclosed that government was going to fumigate the places that were affected in order to avert the outbreak of diseases, and that dredging work on the Odaw and desilting of the Korle Lagoon were all on course.