Fear Grips La Residents …After Bomb Explosion

Residents of South La in the Greater Accra Region are living in fear days after a grenade explosion in the area.

The residents say they feel unsafe living in the community after the grenade explosion last Tuesday.

The community is alarmed by the development and wants more to be done to secure the area and forestall a possible recurrence.

Three siblings nearly lost their lives after the grenade exploded while in their possession at the La Beach.

The children aged five, seven and 10 year-olds who had gone to the beach to play escaped death by a whisker.

The children sustained various degrees of injuries during the blast on August 5.

The explosive detonated while the children were playing with the object discovered without knowledge of the danger it posed.

Later on Wednesday, August 5, 2020, the police and military visited the site to discover more grenades.

Speaking to Citi News, the residents said they feel threatened, especially as they are yet to find how the grenade found its way to the beach.

“This thing hasn’t happened before, so as it is now, everyone will panic because we do not know what will come next. So we wish the government will make the security in the areaa bit tight for us so we can be safe. As we are living by the sea, we walk past there, day and night and do not know what will happen again. I had a shock, how the grenade just exploded.”

“We just heard the sound of the explosion. Then later, one of my guys went there and came back reporting that it was a bomb. So automatically, we were scared. The police stepped in to calm us down. But now, we do not know if those behind it, will come and put it there again”, another worried resident said.

Meanwhile, the Ghana Police Service has begun scanning of beaches at La in Accra following an explosion in the area last week.

According to the Service, the move is critical in determining whether there are similar devices within that perimeter.

Public Relations Officer for the Accra Region Police Command, DSP Effia Tenge explained that “the authorities and experts are doing what is needed to find out whether these objects could be found in any part of the community… but I don’t know whether they are going to extend it to the wider community.”

“Our shores have been very safe so if we have seen something like this, it means that calls for a broader interrogation to find out whether indeed something is happening that we may be unaware of,” she said August 11.

As part of measure to further ensure public safety, she also advised that guardians ensure children don’t touch unfamiliar objects.

A statement from the Police Command also indicated that “police should be notified of strange objects in your vicinity.”

Investigations are underway to determine the source of the device.

However, Security Analyst Col. Festus Aboagye (Rtd.) wants the exercise to be extended to other beaches along the capital’s coastline.

“All our beaches in Accra need to be seriously searched,” he said.

The former military officer told JoyNews that the probability of the recent incident being a remnant of terrorist plot cannot be underestimated. He believes the existence of terror activities across parts of the sub-region call for a critical assessment of the development.

“There are conflict areas around our borders. Burkina Faso is one, Niger is another and even far-away Nigeria that is the Boko Haram enclave.

“So it’s only the authorities after investigations who may come close to establishing where these grenades emanated from,” the Col Aboagye reiterated.

Meanwhile, the father of the children injured in the blast, Oko Adams is grateful to God that they survived.