3 Teenagers drown at Dansoman beach
The bodies of three teenagers , two boys and a girl were found along the Dansoman Beach in Accra yesterday.
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They have since been identified as Edmund Doade, 13; Edem Tuglo, 15, and the 16-year-old girl whose name was given only as Habiba.
The boys had gone to the beach to play football on Sunday, June 15, 2014 when the waves swept them off when they were chasing a ball, while the girl had gone to the beach with some family members to swim.
When the Daily Graphic visited Glefe, where all the children lived, residents were seen in groups discussing the tragic incidents, while the homes of the children had been besieged by sympathisers.
Grandmother speaks
The grandmother of one of the deceased, Mrs Mary Amoah, told the Daily Graphic that her grandchild, Doade, a first-year pupil of the Sea Preparatory Junior High School at Dansoman had left home on Sunday morning after having his breakfast.
“His mother thought he had gone to play, as usual, but we did not know he had gone to the sea side,” she said.
She said about 3 p.m. that day, a group of boys from the area came running towards the house with the information that Doade had drowned.
According to her, a search party, made up of young men from the area, was organised “but we found only his slippers, shirt and pair of shorts”.
She said the incident was reported to the Dansoman Police, who mounted investigations into the incident.
“We heard today that some bodies had been found at the beach and the father went there to identify one of them as his son,” she said.
Floods had soaked clothes
At Tuglo’s house, his mother, Ms Patience Agbonli, said she had locked her three children in the house and left for church in the morning.
“But when I returned, my son, who is the oldest among the three, was not in the house. He had opened the door and left,” she said.
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“I was told that my son, who had always said he would be a footballer in future, had gone out to play football,” she added.
Ms Agbonli explained that she could not take the children to church because the recent floods that hit the community when the Weija Dam was spilled had left all their clothes and footwear drenched.
She said about 3 p.m. yesterday she heard that a boy who was spotting a polo shirt had drowned at the beach.
“When I heard that description, it matched the attire of my son,” she said.She said she went to the beach and found her son’s shorts and slippers.
One rescued
Mr Nelson Ofei told the Daily Graphic that the girl identified only as Habiba lived at Kokomba with his mother-in-law and was visiting his family at Glefe, since his mother-in-law had travelled to the Northern Region.
It is said that Habiba, since her arrival at Glefe, had kept pleading with the family to take her to the beach.
On her insistence, Mr Ofei’s wife, Mary Ama Faisal, and three others accompanied her to the beach about 11 a.m. on Sunday.
About 1 p.m. while they were at the beach, Ms Faisal said she was washing her feet in the sea while Habiba was behind her.
Suddenly, she said she was swept off her feet, together with Habiba, but some swimmers were able to rescue her (Ms Faisal).
“We saw that the water level had gone up and after I was rescued, I saw Habiba lifting her hands while the sea carried her away. But she could not be rescued. Her body was found this morning at the beach,” Ms Faisal said.
All the bodies have since been deposited at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital morgue.
The Dansoman Divisional Police Commander, Chief Superintendent of Police Mr Antwi Tabi, confirmed that the incidents were reported to the police last Sunday when the children drowned.
When reports of bodies washed ashore broke, policemen were detailed to retrieve them.