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“I saw a spark of flash and fire, then there was a sudden noise of an explosion and all I could hear was people screaming from one point to the other…it was a state of pandemonium and confusion as many struggled for breath to stay alive. They were being carried away by the flood waters that had taken over the once busy roads of Circle,” an eyewitness told me in disbelief as he offered his own account of the disaster which claimed over a hundred and fifty lives.

What caused the explosion that occurred at the GOIL filing station at the PTC in Circle, no one has been able to tell even a year after the disaster. What everyone seem to agree on is the fact that petrol from the leaking underground tanks of the filing station started floating on the surface of the flood waters from the choked Odaw drains. And this, they all said led to the explosion which killed workers, customers, drivers, mates and passersby who had taken refuge at the fuel station during the many hours downpour.

The eyewitness continued that from his position up the still under construction interchange at the that part of Accra named after Ghana’s first President, Kwame Nkrumah, he could see hundred struggling to swim across the flood waters which had filled the road leading to the East Cantoments Pharmacy. Dozens screamed and wailed in pain when they watched helplessly as their bodies were burnt alive in the inferno. Hell had descended upon Accra on this black Wednesday, many said.

“My greatest shock was when I saw the whole place go up in flames after the tanker which some few hours before the downpour was discharging fuel to the station go up in flames. And immediately, the supermarket at the filing station also caught fire and that spread to other houses close to the filing station, killing every living thing in its wake…,” the eye witness added.

What remains certain is that within less than four hours on Wednesday, June 3rd 2015, more than a hundred and fifty souls including passersby who had taken refuge at the GOIL filing station from the rains perished in the disaster. They included women and children as young as one year and workers of the filing station and nearby shops. Hawkers and night time workers perished as well.

The most harrowing of all the pictures that emerged from the scene of the accident after the disaster was that of a nursing mother and her baby who both drowned in the ever-increasing waters from the Odaw drain.

Unconfirmed accounts indicated that the nursing mother panicked while on top of a storey building upon seeing the explosion. This caused her to let go the baby which she had been holding close to her chest. An attempt to rescue a dear baby, the account continued led to both of them getting drowned.

No body bags

The morning after the disaster, authorities from the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) and the security agencies were at the scene of the disaster in their numbers to pack out the bodies from the scene. These personnel came ill-prepared to attend to a disaster of such magnitude as they came to the location with gloves for the purpose but not with body bags.

Instead, they picked up the bodies and dumped them into waiting KIA trucks. These trucks were stationed opposite the disaster zone. Workers of NADMO and persons from the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) went round gathering dead bodies from around the Odaw drains. And once the KIA trucks were full, they were covered with blankets and driven to major hospitals in the city.

Surprisingly, no record was taken of the details of the bodies gathered into the KIA trucks before being sent away. And this allowed the police to publicly demand that people walk into the hospitals to identify their dead.

A former Director General of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), Professor Agyeman Badu Akosa expressed same disgust at the way the bodies of those who perished in the disaster were transported to the morgue. The politician cum pathologist was of the view that a similar situation in other countries, especially in more developed countries, would have seen the bodies being wrapped in body bags.

“Anywhere else, all the bodies would have been put in body bags and the body bags would have been appropriately transported to the morgue,” he told Accra-based Citi FM at the time.

As expected, politicians and other high profile persons in the country started trooping into the site of the disaster to observe at firsthand what had happened. They included President John Mahama, former President Rawlings, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, and a host of others. Fine speech was delivered with all the big promises to make the city better. The outcome of their promises, a year on is that the situation has never changed.

I won’t stay in Accra again

“Kwame Nkrumah Circle has never been the same after the disaster,” a trader who is also a resident of one of the most populated areas in the capital said during a discussion in a commercial transport sometime in December 2015. Her reason was that several persons have packed out of the location to other areas of the capital or have returned to their hometowns. These persons claimed they can no longer bear the horrors of June 3rd once again.

The account of the trader is corroborated by a report I filed on 6th June, 2015. In this report, sixty-two year old Comfort Nyane was seen leading a team of young men to pack out her belongings from a house closer to the Circle disaster site. Despite accepting that it was really difficult for her to vacate an area she had domiciled for more than 20 years, she believed at the time that, the move was a perfect one at the time as she had lost most of her belongings to the floods.

“I have lived in this house for more than twenty years and this place always gets flooded, but not at this level…most of our household items are either burnt and were destroyed by floods. Never in my sixty two years on earth have I witnessed such a tragedy that in the midst of floods, there would be explosions and then fire would break out consuming persons and properties…I have never imagined such a tragedy would ever occur in Ghana…,” she shook her head in disbelief when I interviewed her at the time.

Other traders including carpet sellers at the scene of the accident also packed out for other locations. Those who could not withstand the horrors of the night either departed for their hometowns or other cities in the country. The traders reckoned that has led to a sharp decline in sales at the busy commercial centre.

Superstition or Reality?

A month after the accident, some Ga traditional leaders [Wulomei] in the Greater Accra Region went to the disaster scene to perform some rituals to ward off what they described as spirits of persons [ghosts] who died from the June 3 flood and fire disaster.

The rituals followed reports from some residents in the area that they have been hearing screams and other strange noises at night which they believed were made by those who died in the tragedy. These and several reports of ghost gradually led many to abandon Circle for other areas. Commercial traders close to the scene also claimed they were not recording higher sales again. It took months for business activities to return to normal at the centre.

I can’t conclude on the claims that ghost were haunting the residents but I can write that those who perished in the disaster died in vain. Yes, one year on, I can confidently say that they died in vain because less than a year after the disaster, I have as a journalist in Accra covered and written about flood disasters in the city of Accra.

In October 2015 (four months after the disaster), Circle was flooded again

I of course disagree with the persons including the politicians who all shouted never again, never again. I can predict that indeed it would happen again and again and again. The Canadian who betted that there would be another flooding disaster in Accra is right. He would certainly win his bet.

One year after the disaster, nothing seem to have been done about curbing the floods in the city. Almost all drains in the capital are still choked. Desilting of the Odaw drains have stalled. The sand that was fetched from the drains have all been gathered at the around the drains. The once deep drain is still a grazing ground for cattle and several squatters in an around the drain use it as a refuse dump and place of convenience.

The knee jerk approach

Following the disaster, the city authorities and the Ministry of Environment, Science and Technology started clamping down on filing stations sited at unapproved locations and in residential areas. Buildings were also pulled down in the capital because they were sited on water ways.

This approach which seemed to have received the endorsement of all and sundry in the country and the capital especially was a contributing factor to the destruction of the Old Fadama settlement near the Korle Lagoon. That was a major move by the AMA CEO, Okoe Vanderpuiye. We all enjoyed it at the time.

However, the fabulous approach to dealing with a disaster hit a snag when it got to Bukom in Accra. Over here, the Member of Parliament (MP) for the area who is currently the Sports Minister allegedly stopped the city authorities from carrying out the demolition. The whole operation appeared to run out of steam, and nearly a year later, some of the demolitSometime after, several filing stations are sited at wrong locations.

It was however not surprising when some of the filing stations they attempted to pull down started operating once more. The approach was simply a sham and a knee jerk approach.

In memory of the departed

Sited at the exact location of the disaster is an effigy made of plastic bags surrounded by other plastic rubbers. The effigy is a man carrying a helpless victim of the disaster. Below the man who is seem to be weeping at the loss of a dear one is another person who is also trapped in a car tyre and being carried away by flood waters. Behind the effigy is the inscription ‘June 3 Save A Life’ boldly written with the colours of Ghana’s flag. Other various inscriptions educating people on the importance of protecting the environment are also posted at the location.

At the left hand side of the effigy is a banner of the APAA-WA-CO-OPERATIVE TRANSPORT SOCIETY. There are pictures of 9 gentlemen on the banner. These were all drivers and mates of the local drivers’ union who lost their lives in the disaster. One of them, Mr. Lee suffered serious degrees of burns around his body rendering him impotent to driver. There is a telephone at the edge of the banner demanding that people should come to the aid of the driver.

There would not have been the need for the drivers to call for support if the fund established to take care of the survivors had been well utilized. A year on, victims still troop to the offices of the Multimedia Group to ask for support. What happened to the millions contributed to the fund?, I demand.

A year on, we have failed to right our wrongs, dot our I’s and crossed our T’s as a country. Floods still stare at us but the vulturistic attitude is preventing us from doing nothing as a people.
Ghana would be doomed every year until we finally learn to respect the very rules we have set to guide our society. Never again, must we fail to do the right thing to help our country. To those innocent souls that perished in the disaster, I say fare thee well but my prayer is that you will not die in vain.

The writer is a Journalist at Adomonline.com