Actor, farmer and politician John Setor Dumelo has commented on the controversial East Legon accident that claimed the lives of two teenage girls.

He spoke to the media on the sidelines of the farewell service held today, Wednesday, October 23, 2024, for one of the victims, Justine Mary-Ann Enyonam Agbenu, at the Christ the King Catholic Church, Accra.

Dumelo said as a parent, he was saddened by the disaster the bereaved families had been confronted by.

“It’s an unfortunate incident. I sympathise with the family. We’re all parents – we know how some of these things feel – I really sympathise with the family. I hope and pray that no other family goes through something like this ever again,” he said.

The movie star agreed with the public and Justine’s grandmother that the accident opens up a valid conversation on good parenting.

“O yes, it does. Of course, your kids can go wayward one way or the other but it’s your duty and responsibility to keep a leash on them,” he remarked.

While he admitted there was, indeed, a black sheep, proverbially called ‘a Mensah’ in Akan, in every family, he stressed “you have to keep a leash on them – you have to discipline your kids when they are wrong, and make sure you don’t surround them with certain elements that would propel them to act [unacceptably]”.

Contesting for the Ayawaso West Wuogun parliamentary seat on the ticket of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), he said “and driving through [the constituency’s East Legon area]” he had noticed the Mensah Wood Avenue road, where the fatal accident happened, was, in his view, “the only one that doesn’t have any speed ramp – in the inner roads”.

Thus, he asked for more speed ramps in the inner roads of East Legon “and even across the country” to control speeding by drivers.

“I’m sure if there were speed ramps there [Mensah Wood Avenue], I don’t think that accident would have happened,” Dumelo posited.

On Saturday, October 12, a Jaguar vehicle driven by Elrad Salifu Amoako, the 16-year-old son of Alive Chapel International’s founder and overseer, Bishop Elisha Salifu Amoako, rammed into an Acura vehicle carrying Justine Agbenu and her friend Maame Dwomoh Boaten in its backseat. Eventually, the two cars caught fire resulting in the incineration of the two named 12-year-olds.

Currently, the matter is in court as Elrad’s father and mother Mouha Amoako have been charged with permitting an unlicensed person to drive.

Reacting, Dumelo said he “definitely” wanted to see justice served as “the law takes its own course”.

He declined to comment on Bishop Elisha Salifu Amoako saying on Sunday, October 19, in church, that his son did not deliberately kill the two teenagers.