The victims being pulled out of the dam
Residents of Sonitra, a community close to Nsakina in the Ga West municipality, were thrown into a state of shock when three school children – two siblings and a friend – drowned under mysterious circumstances in a dam when they went to swim over the weekend.
The boys are Jacob Amponsah 14-year-old Primary 5 pupil of Odumasi M/A, Edward Amponsah, 10 and Ernest Baffoh, 11, both Class 3 pupils of the same school.
It took more than 24 hours for the rescue team, including the police and the town folks, to remove the bodies from the dam.
Eyewitnesses claimed that the bodies of Edward Amponsah and Ernest Baffoh were first removed from the dam after close to five hours of search.
However, the body of Jacob Amponsah was removed the following Saturday by the search team.
They said they expressed shock after discovering that the heads of the deceased children had been crashed when the bodies were recovered from the water.
The incident, according to James Banyaga, a resident of the area, was the second one recorded in the dam since he moved to the area two years ago.
A year ago, he claimed, a level 200 student of the University of Ghana and his friend also downed in the dam while swimming.
Meanwhile, George Baffoh, father of Ernest Baffoh, a mason, told DAILY GUIDE that he was at home that Friday morning when the two siblings came to call his son out.
“On that fateful day, when they came to call my son, they never said they were going to swim; I would have stopped them, but I thought they were going to play football as usual,” Mr Baffoh lamented.
He said he was at home when news reached him that afternoon that his son had been trapped in the water.
The father of the two brothers, this paper gathered, is a seaman who was not at home when the incident
When contacted, ASP Efia Tenge, Accra Regional Police Public Relations Officer, said the bodies had been deposited at the Police Hospital for preservation and autopsy.
The Municipal Chief Executive of the Ga West Assembly, Clement Wilkinson, was at the scene to help the rescue team in their search.
He told DAILY GUIDE that reports gathered had indicated that about 20 persons had lost their lives in the dam.
He said the assembly would help cordon off the area to prevent any further tragedy and ensure that the water was treated to make it drinkable.
By Linda Tenyah-Ayettey
(lindatenyah@gmail.com)