Gas explosion: Crack the whip – Majority leader

The Majority Leader in Parliament and a Member of Parliament for Suame Constituency Hon Osei Kyei Mensah Bonus has urged law enforcement agencies to deal ruthlessly with people who defied authority safety measures leading to lost of lives and destructions of multi-million properties.

According to him, some of the tragedies that had happened in the county are preventable but people are flouting the laws in Ghana with impunity adding that it’s time to crack the whip to serve as deterrence to some recalcitrant inhabitants.

The Suame law maker who is bemoaned with what happened at Atomic junction last Saturday said perhaps the gas operator failed to install smoke detector and other mechanism that can prevent such accident.

Atomic Junction Gas Explosion occurred on 7 October, 2017 where a Liquefied Natural Gas station located around Atomic Junction in Accra, Ghana, exploded.

News gathered from the explosion reports that the Gas station exploded first before affecting a Total Filling Station nearby which also caught fire. There were a number of fatalities with at least seven deaths and 132 injuries being reported.

Speaking to otecfmghana.com on this development, Hon Osei Kyei Mensah emphasised that “as a country we must be serious and enforce certain laws to avoid future calamities,”

“Environmental Protection Agency went there, National Petroleum Authority, Town and Country Planning, Fire Service they must all went there and check the facility. So didn’t they saw that such calamity could have happened, “he quizzed.

"We should be serious as a country, first of all when you are doing something you have to look at the environment before you do it. When we go to church we make noise but the noise should not affect somebody who is resting. Are we enforcing these laws,” he fumed.

According to him, non abiding of laws and the negligence on the part of the regulators who were to inspect the gas operators in ensuring that they comply with acceptable safety procedures have caused this disaster.

"It is time to enforce the laws in the country to quash these things,” he reiterated.