By Lawrence Odoom
Vice President Professor Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang has issued a stern admonition for strict compliance with building codes and heightened accountability, following the catastrophic collapse of a structure at Avenor, near Melcom Plus in North Kaneshie.
The Vice President made the impassioned plea on Sunday, June 7, during a somber visit to the disaster site, where rescue operations persist. One fatality has been confirmed and two persons remain entrapped beneath the rubble as emergency crews work against time.
Addressing journalists at the scene, Prof. Opoku-Agyemang emphasized that such calamities are largely preventable when stakeholders exhibit fidelity to established regulations and safety protocols. She lamented that disregard for the law, often dismissed as inconvenient, invariably culminates in needless loss of life and property.
“There are many things we can all prevent, and it is about doing the right things—we know them. We don’t need to wait. As we are standing here, we are being told that somebody is trapped in there. Why should this happen?
So please, all I am saying is that let us abide by the rules. I said only yesterday or so that rules may not always make sense, and nobody likes them, but we need rules. Otherwise, nothing will function” she declared.
The Vice President further demanded a meticulous investigation into the structural failure and urged all custodians of public safety to submit themselves unreservedly to scrutiny. She stressed that the tragedy must serve as a catalyst for introspection and institutional reform.
“And we need to do proper investigation. We must all open ourselves to be held to account. It’s all of us. This really maybe needn’t have happened. But what could we have done? What do we do to ensure that going forward, we are not seeing many like these? We all know the right things to do. Let us make them possible” she added.
Prof. Opoku-Agyemang’s remarks underscore a growing national imperative: that development cannot be divorced from discipline. Her call reframes building regulations not as bureaucratic encumbrances, but as indispensable bulwarks safeguarding human life — a clarion summons for engineers, developers, regulators, and citizens alike to elevate collective responsibility above expedience.