The Committee set up to investigate the cause of the collapsed Akyem Batabi Church of Prosperity building has observed that, the four-storey church building was constructed with an expired permit issued 20 years ago for a single storey church building.
The Committee, set up by the Institution of Engineering and Technology – Ghana (IET-GH) also noted among its key findings that “In the course of the construction, the church altered the building design to a four-storey building with the prophet’s residence on top, without retrofitting or fortifying the original foundation meant for a single storey church auditorium, or without consulting any building professional.
In an 88 page report, it also observed that, although the Asene-Manso-Akroso District Assembly disinfected the church premises against COVID-19 pandemic on October, 17, preceding the building collapse, it did not notice any defect on the building or find out whether the church had permit to put up such a huge structure.
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The committee began its investigations by interviewing some key stakeholders including the District Chief Executive for Asene-Manso-Akroso District, the Divisional Police Commander for Oda, Engineers in the Asene-Manso-Akroso District, the chairman of the Council of Elders of the Church of Prosperity, some other elders and members of the church.
The four-member committee visited the church building collapse site for physical observations and caused structural integrity test to be conducted.
The church building collapsed on October 20 entrapping and killing 22 and injuring eight members.
One other member got missing and could not be found after a rigorous rescue operation.
After reviewing all Test Results, Physical Observations, Interviews and Desk Study, the investigative team concluded that the cause of the Batabi Church of Prosperity Building collapse was as a result of poor quality workmanship and Institutional failure.