The New Patriotic Party (NPP) Member of Parliament (MP) for Dome Kwabenya, Sarah Adwoa Safo has lashed out at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for granting permit to filing stations located within residential areas.
According to her, the EPA is responsible for last Wednesday's twin disasters at the Goil Filling Station at the Kwame Nkrumah Circle which led to the untimely deaths of over 200 people.
Commenting on the closure and demolition of a number of fuel stations in the capital and parts of Tema, the MP said the mere fact that the filling stations were built on waterways without permit meant the EPA failed in the first instance to protect the environment.
“What are we doing as a country, are we not putting the safety of our people first or just because people have the means of manipulating the system, all of us have to suffer?”
The MP speaking on Ghana Television’s breakfast show yesterday said Goil Filling station has a legal responsibility to compensate relatives of victims.
“The company can be sued big time for liability and as a country if we are not prepared to do that, then why don't we do the right thing by preventing people from building in unauthorized places,” she stated.
She cited her constituency as an example where unauthorized fuel stations are being built within residential areas and made references to parts of Taifa where through court injunctions, construction of some fuel stations which were close to schools, churches and public places were stopped.
The lawmaker added that the building of fuel and gas stations in one particular area is dangerous and needs to be avoided because in an instance of a leakage the disaster will be more damaging.
The NPP member stated that when Members of Parliament visited the scene of the accident last week, the MPs were hooted at and that was a sign of public anger against public officials because the people could no longer trust them to protect their lives.
“When the public anger gets to such an extent, MPs, ministers and government officials stand to lose and our lives can also be threatened. Because of this, some of my colleagues have summoned the Minister in charge of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation to answer to the house on the issuing of permits in the country,” she opined. The Dome-Kwabenya MP likened Ghana to a pregnant woman who after going through nine months of pains and sickness tends to forget the pains when she sees the face of the baby. “We stand in arms as if we are going to correct the wrongs but the moment the issue returns to normalcy we forget about it entirely,” She concluded.
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