Ghana was hit with the shocking news of an explosion at Apiate in the Bogoso area of the Western Region on January 20, 2022.
The incident which occurred somewhere around midday, has led to a current death toll of about 14 and over 100 other persons injured.
The impact of the blast also resulted in the destruction of several properties, including over 500 homes reduced to rubbles.
Preliminary police report
The Ghana Police Service, a few hours after the incident, released a brief giving out some details about the explosion.
According to the Police, the explosion resulted from an accident between a truck transporting mining explosives, a motorbike and a tricycle.
The Police noted that “preliminary investigation has established that a mining explosive vehicle moving from Tarkwa to Chirano mines collided with a motorcycle resulting in the explosion.”
In a later media briefing, the Director of Public Affairs, ACP Kwesi Ofori, described the process of transporting the explosives through Apiate as having been conducted procedurally.
While concerns had been raised on the level of safety measures implored in the transporting process, the police spokesperson further stated that the driver of the truck went further to alert the community members of the pending danger when the truck caught fire after the accident.
“Let me use this opportunity to also state that the truck driver is in good hands. The gentleman who was on the motorbike is also responding to treatment, and for the driver, knowing what he was carrying, was of help to the community here.
“He quickly rushed to the school, informed the teachers about the danger that was to come, and the children were whisked away quickly from the area to a safer ground.
“He also announced to most community members to move out, including the motor rider. But unfortunately, looking at the radius of the explosion, the 13 died, and the 36 who are on admission also sustained injuries and 96 with all manner of cuts were treated and discharged,” he said.
On the position that the transportation process followed due procedure, the ACP maintained that a police escort accompanied the truck, adding that a police officer escorting the truck assisted the driver to ensure some students in the community were taken to safety before the blast.
“Let me say that the transport of the explosives, procedurally, was properly done and that there was a Police escort. The Police escort assisted the driver in making sure that they alerted members of the public.
“The Policeman was part of those who came to the school to whisk the school children away. He was in the escort vehicle, and he witnessed what happened, and even their escort vehicle was also used to evacuate the injured.”
Account on motor rider, school children and police escort contradicted
Despite the facts put out by the Police based on its preliminary investigation of the accident, several contradictions have arisen from eyewitness accounts to third party accounts.
The contradictions focus on three main events in the police narrative of the accident including the account on the cause of the accident, claims of a police escort attached to the transporting truck and the attempts to save school children.
Motor rider gives his own account
The role of the motor rider, according to the police account, was pivotal to establishing the cause of the accident.
From the police narrative, the motor rider collided with the truck, which eventually resulted in the explosion.
But speaking for the first time since the incident, the motor rider, whose name has been given as Philip Mensah, denied ever crashing into the truck loaded with the explosives.
He told journalists that he was involved in an accident that did not involve any truck and was consequently sent to a nearby hospital to receive treatment.
He maintained that it was at the hospital that he heard of the news on the explosion.
“A car hit me from behind. All I heard was a bang. So I fell off and slid on the coal tar for a while. In the process, I saw my motorbike sliding on the road as well. I did not see the car that hit me because it was from behind.
“It was a taxi driver and a welder who rushed me to the Aseda Hospital. I was receiving treatment at the hospital when we heard the blast. Everybody ran, including me. Later, I saw many casualties being brought in. The nurses even abandoned me to attend to the seriously injured victims of the accident,” he told Joy News.
In a separate interview with the Ghana News Agency, Philip Mensah disclosed that he did not see any truck around him when the accident occurred.
He added that “the people that conveyed us to the hospital later informed me that it was a sprinter bus that hit my tricycle and that the driver ran away after the accident.”
Philip stressed that contrary to widely held views that he crashed into the MAXAM Company truck, he was not present at the accident scene.
“I don’t know where that story [of me colliding with the truck] is coming from because I was not at the scene”, he stressed.
There was no escort Chiefs dare Police to prove otherwise
Contrary to findings in the preliminary police investigations, the traditional leadership of Apiate insists that there was no police escort accompanying the truck carrying explosives that had an accident.
Speaking to a delegation of government officials including the Ministers of Lands and Natural Resources, Works and Housing and the Western Regional Minister, the Chief of Bepo near Bogoso, Nana Ataa Brembi II, debunked the claims by the Police, insisting that there was no police escort with the truck.
According to a report by Daily Graphic, the chief maintained his position, adding that members of the Apiate community are witnesses to the absence of a police escort in the incident.
“I want to let the ministers present know that the information going round that the truck was being escorted is not true. I want to emphasize again that it is not true,” he said.
He noted that the accident occurred in the full glare of the community members of Apiate, who are direct eyewitnesses to the entire event.
He dared the Police to prove him wrong, saying, “If they challenge us, they should produce the said police officer to tell us where he was when the accident occurred,” the chief further said, “….they should tell us if the police escort was before or after the truck….”
There’s no school in Apiate -Another police account disputed
Another contradiction raised in the police narrative is the presence of a school in the community and how the truck driver and the police escort saved the children in the school from the blast.
The Prestea-Huni Valley Municipal Director of the Ghana Education Service (GES), Mary Vida Kwofie, has stated that there is no school in the Apiate community.
According to a 3news.com report, the municipal director maintains that though there is a structure in the community painted and looking like a school, “it is not in use”.
“…there is no school there. The building there and being misconstrued as a school building with children used to be a training centre for the mining company, former Golden Star Resources (now Future Global Resources).
“They gave it to the community when they left. So the community decided to use it for a KG. But the parents could not pay the community teachers. Currently, the chiefs and people have approached the education directorate that GES absorbs it as a school in the public sector. The process is currently ongoing.”
She, therefore, insisted that it cannot be the case that “there was a school there with children at the time the incident happened”.
On the police account of the police officer and the truck driver running to the supposed school to get the children to safety, Ms Vida Kwofie speaking on Connect FM’s morning show said, “I don’t know where the driver went to pick the children from the school building. But all I can say is that there is no school at Apiate”.
Further to her statement, the municipal education director explained that most students from Apiate at the time of the accident were in their schools located in neighbouring communities.
“When the incident happened, those from the community and attending school at Golden Star were housed at the school. The school has some teachers’ quarters, so that was where they were kept. They did not go to the scene at all. They are fifteen in number. It was later that their parents and relatives came to pick them. The last group that left the school did so on Sunday. Another school, Bepo Methodist Primary, had 39 students… When the incident happened, someone on a tricycle came to warn them to run. So they were relocated to a community at the back of the school and were supervised by the headmaster and their teachers. And that was where they stayed till in the evening when their parents came for them. The headmaster took the remaining two to his house.
“The Bepo-Nhyieso JHS had seven students. One was not affected and so he comes to school but the remaining 6 are being housed at the Parish Hall”.
According to her, arrangements are being made to enrol the affected students in neighbouring schools once they are relocated to their temporary abode at Dumasi where resettlement is being put up for the victims of the Apaite explosion.
“On our assessment visit, we saw at the Golden Star School that some have started attending school. But for those at Bepo, there was no one there. The affected students are currently at Bogoso and from Bogoso to Bepo is quite a distance, and they also have to pass through their now-destroyed community. So, the plan is that when they are resettled, we will look for schools around and send them there.”
Concerns rife about police narration of Apiate explosion
Meanwhile, concerns have been raised about the police account of the explosion.
Security Analyst Dr Adam Bonaa has noted that the Director-General, Public Affairs Directorate of the Ghana Police Service, ACP Kwasi Ofori, rushed to speak to the media following the incident.
Dr Bonaa said on the Sunrise show on 3FM Monday, January 5, with host Alfred Ocansey that the Police jumped ahead of themselves.
“The Police jumped ahead of themselves and even declared the place a crime scene that has not even been cordoned off. This is the same place we allowed the Vice President to go; it could have been disastrous,” he said.
He added, “It is disappointing that ACP Kwesi Ofori spoke too early. He gave out too much information, and it looks like he was not guided believing that all others will endorse what he said.”
In the same vein, the Minority Leader of Parliament, Haruna Iddrisu, speaking on the floor of parliament some days after the accident, raised concerns about what he said was premature conclusions that had been made.
“Some support has been extended, and some premature decisions have even been taken. Even while investigations are yet to be commenced on the matter,” he said.
Source: www.ghanaweb.com