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Regional news for Wednesday, March 10, 2021
Source: GNA
2021-03-10
The leadership of the fishermen and the Police Command expressed their shock at the incident.
The Apam Fishing Community leadership has linked the tragic drowning of 12 children on the beach on Sunday with spiritual forces, saying the children swam in the sacred part of the sea.
Therefore, they insisted that more rituals were necessary to avoid another calamity.
Both the leadership of the fishermen and the Police Command expressed shock at the incident, as they had strictly enforced the ban on activities on the beach.
“We are surprised by what happened, because we have ensured strict compliance with the ban on activities on the beach,” they said.
This came to light when the Director of Central Regional Coordination, Mr. Adjei Boahen, along with officials from the Ghana Police Service, NADMO and the National Fire Service visited the site to interact with the fishermen’s leadership on Tuesday.
The visit was on the instruction of the designated regional minister, Ms. Justina Marigold Assan, to allow the team to first obtain information about the incident, discuss and also determine the possible mode of burial of the victims, but was not conclusive.
The children, between 12 and 17 years old, would have used an alternative route to enter the sea through the blind side of the fishermen and the Police on the beach, due to the national ban on activities on the beach after the COVID outbreak. -19 pandemic.
Nana Kow Panyin, Apam’s deputy chief fisherman, told the team that further consultation should be held with the Apam chief and individual families to reach a consensus on whether the children should receive a mass burial after the necessary rituals were performed. . .
In briefing the team on the incident, he said a ‘Good Samaritan’ raised the alarm that some children, between 15 and 20, were swimming in the sea around 1800 hours on Sunday.
Nana Panyin said that when they were on their way to rescue them, they were told that four of the children had drowned, while two others were rescued alive and sent to St Luke’s Catholic Hospital for medical attention.
He said they quickly mobilized and began searching for the bodies in the midst of libation and performing rituals, but they were unsuccessful and had to withdraw after midnight.
However, four lifeless bodies were recovered on Monday around 7:00 a.m. and another three around 10:00 a.m., while around 2:00 p.m. another five bodies were also found, raising the total. 12 bodies recovered so far, including two women.
He said one of the Cape Coast children was staying with a relative, another was from Takoradi, two were from Ankamu, a nearby community, and the rest were Apam natives.
Preliminary police investigations indicated that while the children were swimming, a strong storm surge blew in and drowned them and washed away their bodies.
Police Deputy Superintendent (DSP) Moses Osakonor, Apam District Police Commander, confirmed that the children were elementary and JHS students.
The DCE, Mr. Bismark Baisie Inkoom, said that before the COVID-19 outbreak, there was a practice in which people participating in a swimming competition was called “Sunday Special”, but it was stopped due to the ban on swimming. activities on the beach.
According to the DCE, the incident, while tragic and traumatizing, had provided them an opportunity to implement strict security measures, including the formation of a community task force to help prevent such events.
He expressed his condolences to the grieving families and urged them to be encouraged by the fact that God was the giver and the taker of life.
