APA – Accra (Ghana)
Nine school children died on Wednesday afternoon when the canoe they were using to cross a river while returning from school capsized at Faanaa-Wiabomaa, an island community in the Ga South Municipality of the Greater Accra region of Ghana.
According to reports by the Ghanaian Times on Friday, the canoe was paddled by one of the students, who claimed he could ferry his colleagues across the river from the Wiaboma side where the school is located to Faana where their various homes are located.
Speaking on the incident, the Ga South Municipal Deputy Coordinator in charge of operations of Ghana’s National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO), Mr Wonder Jiaggey, told the Ghanaian Times on Wednesday that they were greeted with the sad news of the canoe accident at about 5:00 pm yesterday.
He disclosed that two families lost three children each from the accident and that “the last child was retrieved this morning”.
According to him, the owner of the canoe, who was not around at the time the children got to the riverside, has not been located.
He said that a seven-member committee had been set up by the Ga South Municipal Chief Executive, Mr Joseph Nyarni, to investigate the incidence, while the Assemblyman for the area had been appointed to liaise between the families of the deceased and the assembly to ensure a befitting burial for the school children.
Meanwhile, the Police have called on parents of the victims to come forward and identify their children.
The reports recalled that in March this year, a similar incident that claimed the lives of five persons occurred when a boat carrying mourners capsized on the Volta Lake.
The boat was said to be conveying mourners from Azizanya to Azizakpe when it capsized on the lake.
GIK/APA