A twin storey building, with one uncompleted at the Asem-Dunkurk area along the railway lines in Kumasi, were yesterday demolished by the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA) when city authorities noticed cracks on the structure and signs of it sinking.
The completed building – a three-storey block – consisted of homes, office accommodations and stores.
It was cordoned off by security officers and the road in front of it blocked before it was pulled down.
Whilst children of Queen Elizabeth M/A Primary School in the opposite direction were being evacuated from their school to pave way for the exercise, other occupants were forced to leave the structure that had fittings and electrical appliances.
Chief Executive of KMA, Osei Assibey Antwi, said the three-storey building – put up barely a year ago on the Subin River – was seen as a death trap.
“You don’t need to conduct structural integrity test to see that this building is collapsing. Our engineers and others in private practice have assessed and confirmed to us that the structure was coming down,” he disclosed.
Mr. Osei Assibey said that the KMA could not wait for tragedy to happen before action was taken.
“The first action taken is to cordon off the area to enable the structure to be pulled down. Obviously, it will affect the school in the opposite side and the children have been evacuated and the road blocked,” he explained.
The Kumasi Mayor stated that the demolition and its accompaniments could take some time and appealed to the users of the affected road to bear with the KMA.
“I have asked for structural integrity test to be conducted on other buildings in the area for a decision to be taken on them. All unauthorized structures will go,” he emphasised.
He asserted that further investigations would be conducted to determine what exactly was causing the sinking of the building for action to be taken.
“The owner was talking about saboteurs who might have caused damage to the structure and we have to investigate all these and many other issues that have come to our attention,” he intimated.
Mr Assibey said the uncompleted building, which was adjacent to the three-storey building, also had structural defects at the back.
Acting conveyor of KMA’s Works Committee, Kwame Kwakye, said the assembly, sometime during the reign of Mr Kojo Bonsu, passed a resolution to pull down all the structures built on the Subin River along the railway lines, but those to implement it could not carry it through for lack of political will.
From Ernest Kofi Adu, Kumasi