Musician and atirist, Kwame Asare Obeng, widely known as A-Plus has pooh-poohed a report by Joy FM’s Kojo Yankson on the deadly Atomic Junction gas explosion which postulates that the activities of a khebab seller caused the Saturday night disaster.
Mr. Yankson appears to have found himself in hot water after he showed up at the scene the next day to give what he terms as a “chronological” account of the incident although he was not at the gas station during the explosion.
In his account which has been described by a section of Ghanaians as “infantile” and “unprofessional”, the Multimedia journalist blamed a khebab seller for the mayhem.
“There was a leak during a loading exercise from one of the tanks here in this compound. Gas was pluming up into the sky, blowing up very fast and everybody in the area noticed it…Members of staff at the gas station evacuated immediately and called the authorities. Within minutes, our chichinga stand operator decided to start work. In spite of the fact that there was escaping gas, he lit a flame under his Khebab and the flame shot up into the air and connected with the gas that was gathering in the air above the heads of all the people standing around…this flame connected with it [the gas] and set the entire sky above the people at this junction ablaze." He said in a video.
Unlike some critics who chastised Kojo Yankson, A-Plus in a Facebook post quipped that the khebab seller who was close to the site might have been a genius to have survived when a Net2 TV journalist who was filming fell from the overhead and died as a result of the explosion.
"A man who according to your presentation was filming more than 10 meters away died instantly from the blast but the chichinga man who you claim started the fire 10 meters away is Alive and his chichinga stand where you claim the fire started is very intact. So after starting the fire, when the whole place was burning he looked for stones to nicely cover his chichinga stand and went home to Sleep?!!! Thank you very much for the news Mr Ab?i....!!!" his Facebook post read.
Kojo Yankson, however, insists he did not err in giving a blow-by-blow account. He posits that critics of his report have a problem but unfortunately, he cannot offer solutions.
“Ok. So I am wrong, the eyewitnesses are all wrong, the fire officers I spoke to, are all wrong, but you – who were sitting at home while we were on the ground, working to get you information – you are right? Ok, I understand your problem and I am not equipped to solve it. Let’s all wait for the official report. That ought to settle this once and for all. Thanks for your feedback, everyone” his Facebook comment read.
Meanwhile, the Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) has dismissed reports that a fire spark from a nearby khebab seller caused the explosion.
According to the Service, such reports are “unfortunate” and must be disregarded.
“It is unfortunate for anybody to quickly come out with a conclusion of the investigation when there are several possible causes. Certain activities around the gas filling station might be responsible for the cause of a gas fire on a gas facility, but if you are talking about a khebab seller, you need to determine the distance of the khebab seller to the gas station,” Deputy Public Relations Officer of the Fire Service, Prince Billy Anaglate told Citi News.
“You need to determine and assess certain factors to find out that even if there is a leakage of gas that might have caused it, know the velocity and direction for the wind to dissipate the constitution of the gas before making such conclusions. That assertion by somebody is just an unfortunate one,” he added.
Kwame A Plus is not convinced about assertions that the explosion was caused by a khebab seller
