Melcom Owner Is Being Treated Like A Guinea Pig - Atta Akyea

Lawyer Atta Akyea, Counsel for Nana Boadu Nkansah Ayeboafo, the owner of the collapsed Melcom building in Achimota, is heading to the Supreme Court to request for bail for his client.

Nana Boadu Ayeboafo has been remanded by the court following the collapse of the Achimota branch of the Melcom building last week which claimed 14 lives.

He has subsequently been charged for negligently causing harm under the criminal code Act 29.

But according to Mr. Atta Akyea, his client Nana Boadu Nkansah Ayeboafo, is being treated unfairly in the matter and does not deserve the treatment being meted out to him.

In an interview with Citi fm in Accra, Mr. Atta Akyea said, “we won’t sit by for a Chief to be treated as a common criminal. At the moment, he is being treated like a guinea pig; an experimentation to assuage the pain of people that after all ‘we’ve punished the one who is the culprit. He is not the culprit and he is not the one who built the structure. When you own houses, are you also the builder of the houses?”

Mr. Atta Akyea insists that his client is innocent saying he (Nana Boadu Nkansah Ayeboafo) is not a common criminal. “A man who is rich enough to have put up structures for Standard Chartered Bank to come and rent; a man who has sworn an oath of allegiance to the Asantehene and is a Chief; if you want him any day, you can call him and investigate what you are trying to investigate.”

He opines that his client who is experiencing traumatic events should not be incarcerated and remanding him in Police custody will achieve no positive results.

Mr. Atta Akyea also chastised the Accra Metropolitan Assembly’s (AMA) efforts to deny Nana Boadu Ayeboafo and his family access to their home.

“I cannot understand why we are being so callous in the way we are treating this man. Do you think if you single him out for this kind of treatment, you will seem to be working? AMA goes to court exparti to obtain an order to restrain the man and his family from going into their own residence,” he stated.

He questioned the actions of the AMA saying, “is that a way to try to cover their shame and to pretend that they are working? I do not understand what is going on in this country and it is very, very sad that a prominent man will go and break his own structure, what will be the cause?”