The Vice President of Ghana, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, has hinted the intentions of government to rebuild houses for displaced residents of Apiate near Bogoso in the Prestea-Huni Valley district of the Western region in the aftermath of Thursday explosion.
This, according to Dr Bawumia will be done in collaboration with the mining companies in the area and the State Housing Corporation.
He said, “For the houses that have been destroyed, we’re already beginning to think about how to rehabilitate and rebuild the community – so I want to assure Nananom [Chiefs] that His Excellency the President has given us directives and I have already spoken to the state housing corporation and with them in consultation with the mining companies around here, we will quickly try to put in place facilities that would help those who have been displaced”.
He reiterated the priority of the government is to redevelop the community and restore economic activities back to normalcy.
The Vice President announced this when he led a powerful government delegation to commiserate with the beavered families and those who sustained serious injuries and toured the devastated community Friday morning.
Thus far, Dr Bawumia indicated some 13 people have died as a result of the incident and about 59 other individuals have sustained various degrees of injuries. In addition, he noted about 179 families have been affected by the explosion.
The Vice President hinted the numbers may increase as the national emergency response team gathers more information in the course of their work.
Dr Bawumia said the government will do everything possible to support the disgruntled families and medical bills of persons who have sustained injuries and presently receiving healthcare in parts of the country.
“Just to assure you that the government is fully engaged in all these process and we are going to see to it that the people here are well taken care of; we will learn lessons and those are going to be much later on but for now, we’re very much concern about how to complete this rescue effort, how to take care of the injured, how to take care of the families and people who have survived and we will work collaboratively to make sure all that happens” he assured.
Dr Mahamudu Bawumia however used the opportunity to commend the National Emergency Response Team and local residents for their relentlessness in the ongoing rescue effort, describing the incident as a sad day for the nation.
Meanwhile, the government delegation included Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, Samuel Abu Jinapor, Minister for Information, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, Minister for Interior, Ambrose Dery, the Inspector General of Police, Dr Akuffo Dampare among several other officials of state.
Police preliminary investigations indicate a truck transporting explosives to a mining site in collided with a motorcycle resulting in the explosion.
The Chirano Gold Mines has confirmed that the truck involved in the explosion was headed to its site, adding however that, the truck belongs to a mining services contractor identified as MAXAM.