15-year-old boy dies in ‘galamsey’ pit

The lifeless body of a 15-year old class five pupil, Emmanuel Mensah was on Friday found floating on the surface of water in a ‘galamsey’ pit at Dormaa-Akwamu in the Dormaa East District of the newly-created Bono Region.

Chief Inspector Augustine Kingsley Oppong, the Brong-Ahafo Regional Police Public Relations Officer confirmed this to the Ghana News Agency on Monday in Sunyani.

Chief Inspector Oppong said on that day (Friday), March 15, the Wamfie Police received information about Mensah’s body floating on a stagnant water in the abandoned pit and proceeded to the scene to find it in a decomposed state.

He said the uniforms of the boy were found about 15 metres away from the scene, adding that information gathered from the deceased’s school, Dormaa-Akwamu Methodist Primary indicated that he attended school on Tuesday, March 12 but was not seen again.

Chief Inspector Oppong said the deceased’s guardian ‘Obaapanin’ Akua Mansah, aged 96 narrated that Mensah left home on the Tuesday to visit his disabled mother, Afua Vivian but did not return.

He said the Medical Superintendent of the Dormaa East District Government Hospital, Dr Ransford Hoyah-Quashie and Mr. Peter Ansu Gyan, the District Coordinator of National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) were invited to the scene and after their investigations directed for the immediate burial of the deceased because the body posed health hazard to the general public.

Chief Inspector Oppong said the corpse was buried under the supervision of the Dormaa East District Sanitation Officials.

Source: GNA