PHOTO: 4 brothers die in manhole

• Posted on December 12, 2014December 12, 2014
• by Nana Kwesi Coomson
• Comment

Four cesspit workers got drowned in a manhole yesterday when they were trapped in the hot confinement.

They had gone to empty the manhole which had been overfilled with excreta when the first man who descended into it got trapped, and in an attempt to rescue him, the second man too got trapped in the process.

According to an eyewitness, the third man, who joined in the rescue mission, also got drowned, followed by the fourth person. The four persons, using a cesspit emptier with registration number GM 2318-13, had been contracted by Blancomet Re-cycling Company at Kasadjan, North Industrial area, yesterday morning to empty its septic hole when the incident occurred.

The deceased have been identified as Abraham Armah Attoh, 41-year-old driver of the vehicle; Nyarko Attoh, 52; Nii Boi, 22 and  Amartey Amarkai,  24; and their mortal remains had been deposited at the Police Hospital morgue awaiting autopsy.

The eyewitness said the four men visited the premises around 7:00 am but were unable to empty the content of the manhole and so went back. He said they returned at about 8:30 am.

On completing the assignment, they discovered that there was something like sand in the hole and so Nii Boi, the youngest, stepped inside the manhole with a shovel in an attempt to clear the supposed sand but got drowned. It was in a desperate move to save the life of Nii Boi that Armah Attoh, Nyarko Attoh and  Amartey Amarkai also got trapped by the excreta, leading to their untimely death.

Some workers of the company, who realised what had occurred, immediately called on the Ghana National Fire Service to assist in saving the lives of the victims, but they were dead before the fire officers arrived.

The eyewitness said the police were later called to the scene to help retrieve the bodies around 9:00 am yesterday.

Confirming the incident to DAILY GUIDE, Chief Superintendent Flence Adika, Kaneshie District Police Commander, said the police only received information about the incident around 9:00 am.

When the police got to the scene, information received indicated that the drowned persons were three.

The Fire Service recovered three bodies around 10:00 am and so the police conveyed them to the Police Hospital for preservation.

Around 3:00 pm family members visited the station to report that the number of persons who got drowned   was four and not three and so the police visited the scene again to search for the fourth person whose body was recovered and identified as Amartey Amarkai.

By Linda Tenyah