The Ghanaian Minaret

Accra – Muslim worshippers at the ‘Awta’ mosque in Nima, a suburb of Accra, had the scare of their lives when the two-storey building caved in on Monday afternoon.

Early signals before the imminent collapse of the structure gave worshippers who showed up for Zuhr (noon) prayers, enough time to evacuate the premises.

The facility, which for decades has been under construction, has been a weekend Arabic and Islamic school for Muslim children and the home of some migrant beggars within the predominantly Muslim community.

In an interview, the caretaker of the mosque, Safwan Sakib, narrated that he was about to call the Azan (the Muslim call to prayer) when he realised a portion of the mosque’s pillar had fallen.

The situation, he noted, prompted him to sound the alarm for worshippers within the mosque premises to evacuate for safety.

“We were about five in the mosque when the incident happened, but we all evacuated without any hesitation. An old man was hesitant, but we managed to carry him away,” he said.

Since the incident occurred, the site located behind the Nima Central Mosque has been cordoned off, and a team from the National Disaster and Management Organisation (NADMO) and the Assemblyman for the Area have visited the place to assess the extent of the damage.

This incident is the second to be recorded of collapsing worship centres in the month of May alone.

It would be recalled that seven construction workers have been injured after a church building collapsed on them at Old Bortianor in the Ga South Municipality of the Greater Accra Region.

The three-storey auditorium of the Word in Action Church collapsed Tuesday morning while construction work was ongoing.

It was reported that the seven people who were working on an extension project for the auditorium heard an unusual noise, but the building collapsed before they could escape.