TRAGEDY AT ALA BAR (1B, JAN 24, 2011)

TRAGEDY struck Ala Bar, a suburb of Kumasi, on Saturday night when a dilapidated wall which had remained a death trap for some time collapsed, killing a 32-year-old mother of two and injuring two others.
The loud noise from the collapsing wall echoed in the neighbourhood, attracting a crowd to the scene, but before rescuers could bring out the victims trapped under the rubble, one of them, Alimatu Illiasu, was already dead.
Two other people were rushed to the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) for medical attention.
The body of the deceased, who was said to have travelled from Northern Ghana to work in Kumasi not long ago, has been deposited at the KATH morgue.
An eyewitness told the Daily Graphic that the incident happened at about 7.15 p.m. when the three victims were cooking close to the wall.
“I tell you, it would have been more disastrous if many people were around the wall at the time it collapsed,” the witness said.
Ala Bar, one of the oldest suburbs of Kumasi, is very close to the famous Manhyia Palace, the residence of the Asantehene, and is a predominantly Muslim community.
It is predominantly inhabited by people from northern Ghana, as well as people from countries such as Burkina Faso, Mali and Nigeria.
Quite disturbingly, most of the buildings in the community are in a state of dilapidation.
Indeed, the state of the wall before it collapsed depicted the extent to which many of the structures in the area needed serious attention.
According to the eyewitness, the old wall had developed cracks for some time and had become a death trap, but nothing was done to fix it.
That was in spite of pieces of advice given by some concerned residents to the landlord to do something about it.
The Kumasi Metropolitan Chief Executive, Mr Samuel Sarpong, who visited the scene of the accident yesterday morning, shook his head in disbelief on seeing the rubble.
The newly elected Assembly Member for the Afia Kobi Electoral Area in Ala Bar, Mr Mohammed Kamal Deen, who also expressed deep concern over the nature of buildings in the area, said it was time something was done about the situation.
“There are serious death traps in this community and anything can happen any time,” he told the Daily Graphic.