We have to start lashing some ministers – X users angry at minister’s attack on flood victims
Aerial shot of the havoc caused by the dam spillage waters
Comments by Freda Prempeh, Sanitation and Water Resources Minister, that victims of the Akosombo Dam spillage were partly blamable for their challenges has been greeted with backlash by social media users, especially on Twitter (now X).
Read full articleThe minister at a Ghana Water Company Limited event on October 23 suggested that relevant state agencies warned people who risked being affected by the spillage to evacuate but their demands fell on deaf ears.
“We don’t want what has happened in Akosombo to happen to us in Accra. The Akosombo spillage even though VRA, NADMO, the Water Resources Commission came together to educate the people in the community, did simulation exercises with them even at Mepe, yet they refused to leave, they didn’t want to be evacuated.
“They stayed on till the end when we started spilling, unfortunately, look at what is happening and government has to spend millions of money on relief items, education, the whole area, the water is contaminated,” she said.
On social media platform X, there was fury at the minister’s views with some people accusing the minister of lack empathy whiles others said her comments were at best irresponsible, one user stating ‘We have to start lashing some ministers.’
This is the second time a member of government has triggered anger over comments related to the spillage and the attendant humanitarian stress on the people and on businesses.
A week ago, president Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo was in the eye of the storm when he linked political allegiance to delivering on his mandate as president when he visited Mepe, one of the worst-hit areas.
He was roundly chastised on social media platforms as being insensitive so as to make light of life-threatening situations that citizens were going through.
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The minister is part of an inter-ministerial committee set up to oversee government response to the disaster. The committee is led by the Chief of Staff.
Below are the largely critical remarks the minister is being subjected to on X
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