US$500,000 Bribes Used To Cover-up Apeaste Bomb Blast Culprits…A-Plus Reveals

Maverick musician cum social activist, Kwame Asare Obeng, alias A-Plus, has claimed that bribes have been paid to dissuade the authorities from pushing the needful prosecutions over the explosion that took lives at Apeatse in the Western Region.

In a Facebook post recently, A-Plus alleges as much as US$500,000 may have changed hands, buying the authorities off plans to prosecute over the deadly explosion.

“Why is somebody not behind bars? The answer is very simple. While you donate to help the poor people of Apiaste, Someone, according to the information I have, is going round, paying as much as $500,000 to cover up the killing and permanent physical and emotional injuries caused to many poor people who have never seen gold in their lives before,” he alleged.

On 21st January 2022, a vehicle carrying mining explosives was involved in an accident leading to a blast that flattened the town.

The death toll and other casualties are sketchy, but sources say about 20 people and several hundreds were seriously injured.

Meanwhile Chief of Apiatse, Nana Atta Kojo Berembi, has dismissed claims that the truck which was carrying the explosives had had a Police escort. According to him the claim is untrue and is the machination of persons who want to help those culpable escape justice.

According to A-Plus, it makes no sense to him that the truck with the explosives was made to travel through the densely populated Apiatse town.

“Finally, even if it did have a police escort, why will any sensible person born of a woman, sanction the transportation of a product which can explode at any time and cause such damage to lives and property, through densely populated areas, all the way to Apiaste, even if it was being escorted by US marines? What if this explosion happened at Bogoso?” he wrote.

More than 500 houses were completely destroyed in the explosion. The government has so far given donations of relief items, along with others including Chief Executive of Engineers and Planners, Ibrahim Mahama, who has made the largest donation.