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Residents of Galilea, a community located along the Weija Lake in the Ga
South Municipality were plunged into a state of shock over the weekend
when three school children drowned under dramatic circumstances.
The deceased;14-year-old Kwabena Effah, a JHS 1 student of Ngleshie
Amanfrom Basic schools, 13-year-old Junior Ganyo, a class six pupil of
Galilea Cluster of schools and 18-year old Samuel, a JHS two student of
Cluster of Roses International School met their sad fate on Saturday,
11 April.
The deceased and their friends were said to have gone to the bank of the lake to swim when the tragic incident occurred.
Kwabena Effa and Junior Ganyo were neighbors while Samuel, a native of
Nigeria living with his parents, stayed a distance away from the
former.
According to Kwabena Effah’s mother Madam Esther Enin, she last saw her
son on Saturday morning, when she ate breakfast with him. After
breakfast, she said, she saw him playing football with other boys in the
area after which his best friend Akoto invited him to go play in a
different location.
The inconsolable mother told myjoyonline that about two hours after the
two boys departed, some children rushed to inform her that Kwabena had
drowned in the lake. Hoping it was not too late, she quickly organised
some fishermen to conduct a search for the children.
Madam Agness Havor, grandmother of Junior Ganyo said his mother has
been traumatized by her son’s untimely death and has not been able to
speak since news reached her.
The old woman said on that fateful day Junior unusually left home
without informing anyone and joined his friends at the banks of the
lake.
She described Junior as a very obedient boy and could not understand
why this could happen to her grandson since he usually did not like
going out with friends.
Unfortunately for both families, the search party only discovered
sandals suspected to belong to the children in a floating canoe on the
lake.
Eyewitnesses informed them that the deceased children, in the company
of four others had commandeered a canoe owned by one of the fishermen in
the community and rowed off into the water.
However, they said, a strong wind, seemingly from nowhere swept the
canoe further into the lake which made the boys panic and jump into the
water in a bid to swim to the shore.
Some of the boys managed to make it ashore.
However, Samuel, who apparently was the oldest in the group managed to
save his two younger brothers and heroically returned to save a third
boy and unfortunately drowned in the process.
When news of the incident reached the chief of the town, he detailed a
search party to look for the boys. Their search was in vain, as the
bodies of the three boys were washed ashore Sunday.
A formal report has been made to the Amanfrom Police who have retrieved the bodies and deposited them at the Korle Bu Mortuary.
When myjoyonline visited Samuel’s home, his quarters were locked up but
the landlady, Madam Elizabeth Donkor disclosed that his father was
disturbed by the death of his son. According to her, the fact that
Samuel managed to save his two brothers did not give the man any relief.
She questioned whether the man would ever be able to come to terms with the unfortunate loss.
According to her, when Samuel’s body was discovered, his father begged
the police not to send his body to the mortuary. He was not convinced
that the boy was dead.
The police were unable to convince the poor man that indeed his son was gone, and insisted on sending his body to the mortuary.
Madam Donkor explained the man’s absence saying that he had followed
the police to the mortuary, insisting all the while that he had faith
his son would wake up.
Residents of the town told myjoyonline that the incident has hit them
hard. The tight-knit community is reeling from the tragedy and wondering
how such could occur.
Credit: Myjoyonline.com
