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Owner of exploded cylinders turns self in

The owner of the metallic cylinders containing pressurised oxygen which exploded at a welding shop at Amanfrom, near Kasoa, last Tuesday has been charged with negligently causing harm by the Amanfro Police.

Forty-eight-year-old Lydia Kenya handed herself over to the police following the incident which led to the death of two persons and left one person seriously injured.

Briefing the Daily Graphic, the Amanfro District Police Commander, Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Isaac Aryetey Quaye, said Lydia told the police she was a supplier of oxygen to some health facilities and that she filled the cylinders with oxygen and sold them to the institutions.

Mr Quaye said Lydia claimed she repaired the faulty cylinders at that place regularly and on that fateful Tuesday, she sent 31 faulty metallic cylinders to the welding shop to be repaired.

He said Lydia admitted that it was during the repair of the cylinders that the explosion occurred.

Mr Quaye said Lydia had been granted bail while investigations into the incident continued.

Negligence

Mr Quaye explained that the police preferred the charge against Lydia after her caution statement had been taken and added that the police were of the view that she should have taken the faulty cylinders to the Ghana Cylinder Manufacturing Company (GCMC) for them to be repaired.

He said personnel of the GCMC, who had the expertise, would have been in a better position to advise her on how to handle or dispose of the explosive material.

The owner of “By His Grace Metal Works”, the shop where the disaster occurred, Mr Kofi Boateng, is also said to have handed himself over to the Amanfro Police.

Mr Quaye said Mr Boateng told the police that he had been bedridden as a result of an illness and was not at the shop at the time of the incident.
The third victim of the explosion who was found unconscious has regained consciousness at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital but is yet to be questioned by the police.

Gas explosion

A resident of Amanfro, whose name was given only as Ametepe, said he heard a thunderous explosion at about 2 p.m. last Tuesday at a welding shop and rushed to the scene only to find the bodies of two apprentices on the ground. One of them had one of his legs severed.

The bodies were later identified as Stephen Ofori and Prince Kwesi.
A third person who was found unconscious was rushed to the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, while the bodies of the other two were taken to the Police Hospital Morgue.

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