Motor rider vs. Police: Contradictory accounts of what caused Apiate explosion

Apiate explosion leaves town flattened

Apiate explosion death toll hit 14

Government officials commiserate with victims

As conversations around the Apiate explosion continue to dominate the media space, one thing that has peaked most people’s interest is the cause of the ghastly accident which has since left many in shock and some traumatized by the chilling details of

Read full articlethe impact it had.

The explosion which occurred in the afternoon of Thursday January 20, left the town razed down with several properties including houses wholly or partially destroyed.

Ghana Police Service in a detailed second public emergency alert update on the incident categorically stated that “preliminary investigation has established that a mining explosive vehicle moving from Tarkwa to Chirano mines collided with a motorcycle resulting in the explosion”.

For the ensuing days, the narrative has been that the motor rider collided with the truck and resulted in the explosion.

But speaking for the first time since the incident, the motor rider, whose name has been given as Philip Mensah denied ever crashing into the truck loaded with the explosives.

TWI NEWS

He told journalists that he was involved in an accident that did not involve any truck and was consequently sent to a nearby hospital to receive treatment.

He maintained that it was at the hospital that he heard of the news on the explosion.

“A car hit me from behind. All I heard was a bang. So I fell off and slid on the coal tar for a while. In the process, I saw my motorbike sliding on the road as well. I did not see the car that hit me because it was from behind.
“It was a taxi driver and a welder who rushed me to the Aseda Hospital. I was receiving treatment at the hospital when we heard the blast. Everybody ran, including myself. Later, I saw many casualties being brought in. The Nurses even abandoned me to attend to the seriously injured victims of the accident,” he told Joy News.

In a separate interview with the Ghana News Agency, Philip Mensah disclosed that he did not see any truck around him when the accident occurred.

He added that, “the people that conveyed us to the hospital later informed me that it was a sprinter bus that hit my tricycle and that the driver ran away after the accident.”

Philip stressed that contrary to widely held views that he crashed into the MAXAM Company truck, he was not even present at the accident scene.

“I don’t know where that story [of me colliding with the truck] is coming from because I was not at the scene” he stressed.