Ebony’s Death: Sue road contractor — ASEPA
The Alliance for Social Equity & Public Accountability (ASEPA) is calling for the prosecution of the contractor involved in rehabilitating the road on which a heap of sand caused an accident that killed dancehall artiste Ebony Reigns and two others on Thursday night.
Ebony, 20, born Priscilla Opoku Kwarteng, died with the two others around 11:45PM at Nyame Bekyere near Mankranso in the Ahafo Ano South District of the Ashanti Region.
According to police report, on reaching a section of the road between Nyamebekyere and Nsuta, there was a heap of sand in the lane of Ebony’s Jeep, and her driver, in trying to avoid running into the sand, swerved onto the opposite lane and grazed the nearside portion of a VIP bus and plunged into the railings at the edge of the road, killing the music star as well as Francisca Nkansah Kuri, aged 27 years; and Lance Corporal Vondee Francis Atsu, aged 29 years.
ASPEA, in a statement, said: “The contractor must be arrested and charged with manslaughter”.
Below is the full statement
*ALLIANCE FOR SOCIAL EQUITY & PUBLIC ACCOUNTABILITY-ASEPA*
10-02-2018
PRESS RELEASE
*SUE CONTRACTOR OF THE MANKRANSO ROAD ;MINISTRY OF ROADS AND HIGHWAYS AND GOVERNMENT FOR MAN SLAUGHTER-ASEPA URGES EBONY’S FAMILY*
ASEPA expresses great shock on the unfortunate demise of the young and talented Musician Ebony and two others who perished through a much preventable road accident on Thursday night.
Listening to eyewitness account and reports from Police Officers who were at the scene;a lot of questions comes to mind.
First, who is the contractor working on that road and what was a heap of sand/gravels doing in the middle of a road?
Secondly what were the road signs put in place to caution motorist of an ongoing construction or rehabilitation works so that they can slow down?
The contractor negligently left contraction materials in the middle of the road and subsequently failed to warn motorist of the danger on the site clearly leading to the loss of three lives and injuring another.
The contractor must, therefore,e be arrested and charged with manslaughter.
The Ministry of roads and highways must be also be sued for failing to play their supervisory role in the construction.
The ministry aside other obligations is supposed to make the road safe for motorists and pedestrians which they woefully failed.
The Minister must resign with immediate effect and the ministry must be sued for relenting on their supervisory role leading to loss of lives.
The government of Ghana is a third party accomplice in this man slaughter.
The government’s primary responsibility is to protect the citizens directly through the provision of security and other infrastructure like good roads and indirectly through proper road safety and rescue policies and it failed woefully.
The Police team that arrived at the scene did not have proper logistics for the rescue operation which prolonged the number of hours of the operation and that long period of uncertainty may have stifled the little life that could be have been left in the victims to be salvaged by paramedics.
In totality the system failed these Ghanaians;when indeed it is the system that was supposed to protect them and somebody definitely didn’t do their job right and people must be held accountable.
It is therefore important that the families of these victims tests the law;so that we can put people and also government on their toes.
ASEPA is willing to assemble a team of lawyers who are passionate about social justice to support the families of the victims for free if they decide to pursue this all important cause.
Our thoughts and prayers are with the families in this difficult moment and it is our prayer that the souls of these noble Ghanaians whose lives have been cut short by shear negligence rests in peace and we wish the surviving driver a speedy recovery and may he live to tell story that may further justify the claims of the victims families.
Signed
Mensah Thompson
Executive Secretary-ASEPA
0243019131
……issued in Accra…..
Source: otecfmghana.com
