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Melcom, AMA sued over Melcom disaster

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Exactly a year after the whole nation was plunged into a state of mourning in the Melcom disaster, two lawyers have begun a class action in court against Melcom, the owner of the building and the Accra Metropolitan Assembly.

On behalf of the survivors, Egbert Faibille and Kofi Bentil are seeking remedies in court against the three entities who they accuse of being negligent and liable for the disaster which claimed 14 lives and injured scores of others.

The six-storey shopping mall in Achimota was flattened early morning on November 7, 2012 in a shocking disaster that kept many crying for several days.

Politicians had to suspend their political campaigns with few days to go for the 2012 elections just to join the rescue mission at the Melcom Ground Zero.

The nation mourned in honour of the departed souls and turned its anger on the owner of the building, Melcom who are the employers and City authorities accusing them of negligence and wanton disregard for the structural integrity of the building.

Promises were made by Melcom to compensate the victims; AMA promised to prosecute its officials who they accused of failing to carry the duties as expected.

One year after incident, not a single person has been held responsible for the disaster.

Survivors of the disaster are protesting what they claim was peanuts given to them in the name of compensation by Melcom.

One of them, Lawrence Darkwa told Joy News' Manasseh Azure-Awuni his employers failed to honour the promise of compensation made to them.

He had only received 1,000 cedis which he described as peanuts.

Exactly a year after the incident, some of the survivors converged at Ground Zero Thursday morning to honour the memories of the departed souls.

Incidentally, two public interest lawyers are leading the survivors to file a suit at the High Court against the three entities.

One of them, Egbert Faibille told Joy News' Evans Mensah "it is about time we ensured that rights, obligations and remedies are enforced and upheld in this country."

He said the mere fact that the building collapsed means the owner of the building and the employers as well as the city authorities have questions to answer.

He said they will be prosecuting the case based purely on "the law of thought; employers liability." "The employers have to ensure the employees are in a safe secure environment and the AMA did not do their work well."

They intend to hold them to account.

Head of Communications for Melcom Godwin Avernorgbor has welcomed the decision to go to court.

He told Joy News "that is the best way forward."

Avenorgbor also dismissed claims that Melcom had not paid the compensation to the victims.

He said, except for one survivor, whose medical claims were yet to authenticated, Melcom has paid all the compensation.

He also explained that Melcom had no hand in deciding the amount to paid as compensation, adding it was the officials at the labour department who after assessing the extent of injury to each victim decided the amount to be paid.

"They just brought us the cheque for compensation and we paid," he pointed out.

He appealed to the survivors who have genuine complaints over compensation to come for further discussion.  

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DISCLAIMER: The Views, Comments, Opinions, Contributions and Statements made by Readers and Contributors on this platform do not necessarily represent the views or policy of Multimedia Group Limited.