The death toll in the Akyem Batabi church collapse disaster has climbed to 10, local reporter Kenneth Oduro, who works with Akyemansa FM in the Eastern Region, has reported.
According to him, the 10 bodies were among 17 victims who have been pulled out of the rubble so far.
The other seven survived with injuries.
The dead victims are made up of eight women and two men, Kenneth Oduro told Kofi Oppong Asamoah on Class91.3FM’s mid-day news 12 Live on Wednesday, 21 October 2020.
Meanwhile, the District Chief Executive of Asene Manso Akroso, Mr Alex Inkoom, has said his District Engineer revealed to him only on Tuesday, 20 October 2020, just hours after the collapse of the three-storey church at Akyem Batabi that he (the Engineer) had warned the church of the looming danger two weeks earlier after passing through the area.
According to the DCE, the District Engineer told him that he warned the church members and leaders during that visit that the structural integrity and engineering of the building, which has intermittently been under construction since 1994, was dangerous.
The church members, according to the DCE, retorted that they believed in God to protect them and also expressed faith that so far as they had Prophet Akoa Isaac as their spiritual leader, they were more than safe.
Mr Inkoom spoke to Accra100.5FM’s Kwabena Prah Jr on the station’s morning show Ghana Yensom on Wednesday, 21 October 2020.
The congregants of the Church of Prosperity, numbering more than 60, had converged on the church premises to pray and fast for their founder, who had been taken ill, when the incident happened.
More than 30 of the congregants survived and were rescued from the rubble but some 20 others were feared trapped under the debris.
First responders, including personnel from the Akim Oda Divisional Police Command, the Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS), Ambulance Service, and National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) have been racing against time to rescue those trapped under the rubble.
Rescue efforts are still ongoing.