Owner of collapsed Melcom building to turn himself in to police

Owner of collapsed Achimota Melcom buiding in Accra, Nana Boadu Nkansah Ayeboafo is to turn himself in to the police on Friday, 48 hours after the disaster occurred.

Dozens are feared dead when the multi-storey shopping centre caved in Wednesday morning trapping over 70 persons, mostly staff, who were getting ready to open the shopping centre for business.

At least 69 survivors have been rescued as at Friday morning by a combined team of security personnel and a team of Israeli volunteers. About 10 dead bodies have been pulled out of the debris while there are ongoing efforts to reach the rest of the people trapped in the rubble.

Experts have blamed the collapse of the structure on shoddy works and failure to comply with the building regulations by the owner, Nana Boadu. Officials of Accra Metropolitan Assembly also claim the owner did not obtain permit before embarking on the construction works.

But speaking on Peace FM’s “Kokrokoo” programme on Friday, Nana Boadu Nkansah Ayeboafo, who is also chief of Kumasi Nsima in the Ashanti region, denied claims that he had no permit before putting up the building.

He said he had documentation to back his claim, including fees paid for the processing of the document which he is prepared to produce to the police.

Nana Boadu who is a contractor, disclosed that he once visited the shop and noticed heavy appliances were being carried to the top floor which he cautioned them against but no one listened to him.

He declared his willingness to bear the cost of investigations into the cause of the collapse of the building, in order to establish the facts.