The town of Dzodze in the Ketu North District of the Volta Region went into mourning recently, when two children – three-year-old Prince Baka and four-year-old Mariam Damali – met their untimely death when a church building collapsed on them.
Sixteen other pupils who were also in the building at the time sustained various degrees of injury when they were trapped under the broken walls of the building.
This latest incident follows a similar one that occurred at Adrakpo in the Akatsi South District, which saw a young girl lose her life when Kingdom International School building, owned by a local church, collapsed on her.
In the case of the recent incident, the church – Jesus Kingdom Ministries – which is located at Alorgui, Dzodze along the access road to the Republic of Togo, was giving shelter to about 40 pupils when a heavy downpour began that fateful day.
Eventually, as the downpour intensified amidst strong winds, the walls of the church building crumbled on the innocent pupils.
On that fateful day, the children were in their palm frond classroom when the rains began. The teachers, together with the pupils, quickly relocated into the church building nearby. When in the chapel the wall behind the altar collapsed on 18 of the children, killing the two instantly.
The rest who sustained various degrees of injury were rushed to the St Anthony’s Hospital at Dzodze.
Preliminary investigation by the District office of the National Disaster Management Organization (NADMO) has revealed that the church building had structural defects.
The Public Relations Officer of the Education Service in Ketu North, Benjamin Dunyo, who was unhappy with the development, indicated that his outfit had begun closing down schools operating illegally, but was yet to discover the said school.
The owner of the school, Pastor Sosu Baka – whose son was among the pupils who lost their lives – expressed his heartfelt commiseration to the families of all the pupils and promised to regularize his operations with the Ghana Education Service.
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