A lecturer at the University of Ghana Law School, Kwame Gyan has revealed that he prayed for the floods that caused destruction in the Eastern Region recently to come because of his frustration over the failure of government and state institutions to enforce the law to stop the pollution of the Birim river.
Last week, torrential rains caused the Birim river to overflow its banks killing five people, destroying about 500 homes and displacing more than 1,000 people in the Akyem area.
Stakeholders attributed the flooding to the illegal mining (galamsey) activities being undertaken by the youth in the area which had led to the pollution of the river.
Fetish priestess of the river, Nana Felicia revealed that the Birim god was angry at the people for the pollution as well as at the disrespect shown it by a woman who took a brazen pot (Yaawa) from the river and used it to collect refuse.
She said even though she recommended that sacrifices be made to appease the god, elders and residents of the area rejected it. However after the extent of damage caused by the river, the chiefs and fetish priests in the area performed the rituals.
But lawyer Kwame Gyan says he was happy about the flooding because persistent warnings issued by the gods went unheeded and there was no choice but for them to pour out their vengeance on the people.
He claimed that his own village, Akrofufu was not affected by the floods because they heeded the warnings and performed rituals to appease the gods before the disaster occurred.
He said over the years both government and the state institutions which are mandated to plan and enforce the law on protection of river bodies have failed woefully. He described the present state of the river which runs through the whole Akyem state as ‘pure water’.
He criticized government over what he described as their ‘cosmetic’ action of visiting the area after the harm had already been done when they should have made efforts to prevent the havoc.
Lawyer Kwame Gyan cited one incident when he reported activities of illegal miners to the Atiwa police but instead of arresting the suspects, they rather requested he submit a petition on the issue instead.
On the assertion by Deputy Minister of Information, Baba Jamal that the water levels of the Birim River had receded because of the prayers of President Mills, the law lecturer questioned why the president could not use the same power to prevent the flood in the first place.
He said if the president had those powers but failed to use it to prevent the flood, then he should be cited for causing financial loss to the state for having used state resources to provide relief to the affected people.
Meanwhile a senior meteorologist at the Meteorological Services Department, Rev. Stephen Nyakotey Quao has refuted any spiritual connection between either the rituals by the chiefs or Christian prayers and the receding water levels.
Rev. Nyakotey Quao blamed poor drainage system in the Akyem state for the flood adding that evaporation, which is a natural occurrence when temperatures rise and the rains cease could also account for it.
He disagreed with Lawyer Kwame Gyan over the role the rituals played in the floods describing it as primitive.
Story: Afia Pokua & Samuel Mantey/Adom News/Ghana
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