Collapsed church building: It's time to test integrity of certain buildings - Kobby Mensah

A Senior Lecturer at the University of Ghana Business School (UGBS), says it is high time the integrity of certain buildings in the country are subjected to test.

Dr Kobby Mensah said years of neglect by owners and the public just watching on puts everyone at risk.

The Political Science Marketing Expert told Samson Lardy Anyenini on JoyNews’ Newsfile show Saturday that religious groups who worship at uncompleted facilities must be taken to book.

He said city authorities have the ability, the resources and power to bring such people and groups to book and make sure that people actually do the right thing.

On Friday, the search and rescue operation at the site of the collapsed church building at Akyem Batabi came to an end.

According to authorities, a full-blown investigation will be conducted despite the conclusion of the operation to ascertain the cause of the accident and bringing perpetrators to book.

The death toll remains 22 out of 30 persons retrieved from the rubble of the Church of Prosperity in the Eastern Region.

Commenting on what he said could have been avoided, the lecturer quizzed, “What’s the process of actually testing the integrity of structures like that and making sure that they are habitable and they don’t cause danger to the people?

“Now, what kind of education do we actually do? And how do we take, you know, people of such calibre, for example, religious leaders who actually are using premises such as this, how do we take them to account?” he said.

Dr Kobby Mensah said the authorities who are responsible for overseeing to the structural integrity of such places, must be questioned.

According to him, Pentecostal groups and other associations are not doing what is expected of them, in terms of “monitoring whether places of religious worship actually conducive, and actually right, for people to be in there”.

He said these unfortunate happenings should serve as a wakeup call for all.