'You have blood on your hands' - Samson Anyenini blasts authorities over deadly floods

Renowned broadcaster and private legal practitioner Samson Lardy Anyenini has criticised Ghana’s leadership and disaster response systems following devastating floods that have left at least 34 people dead across the country.

Speaking on Newsfile on JoyNews on July 4, 2026, he accused city authorities of negligence and called for accountability over the preventable deaths.

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He also cautioned against the politicisation of the disaster, criticising what he described as blind partisan loyalty in the face of human suffering.

“Hello, partisan robots, disconnect now. If your brain is hardwired to defend a political colour while fellow citizens drown and rot in the capital, this is not for you," he said.

Lardy Anyenini argued that existing laws already give authorities enough power to prevent such disasters, citing sanitation and planning regulations.

“The Criminal and Other Offences Act explicitly criminalises littering and clogging. Local authorities have absolute power to clear obstructions, demolish illegal structures on waterways, and jail offenders.

"Don't let any politician stand on television today with thick empathy or talk about needing new laws. The Criminal and Other Offences Act explicitly criminalises this littering and clogging. The Land Use and Spatial Planning Act and Local and Governance Act give our local authorities absolute power to clear obstructions, demolish lawless structures they allowed to be put on waterways and jail offenders," he stated.

The broadcaster further criticised what he called reactive governance, arguing that authorities respond only after disasters instead of preventing them through enforcement and infrastructure maintenance.

"As we know, the laws are alive on paper. Leadership is dead in practice. Instead of proactive engineering, continuous dredging and ruthless enforcement, we get reactive media stunts during the dump hall and absolute silence when it clears", Lardi Ayenini noted.

He said the consequences of poor sanitation and weak enforcement were directly contributing to loss of life and hardship across communities.

“Look at the mountain trash and the rising body counts today. Every avoidable death, every ruined livelihood, every disease that breeds in these uncollected heaps is on you," Lardy Anyenini stated.

He dismissed post-disaster responses, insisting that what is needed is firm enforcement of existing laws rather than temporary relief interventions.

“We don’t need your prayers. We don’t need your post-disaster warehouse distributions. We need you to enforce the law until you find a political backbone to do your jobs.

“You have blood on your hands and trash at your feet and history will not wash it off," he added.

JKB/EB

Watch bird's-eye view of how illegal construction on waterways is fueling Accra's flood crisis