A cabby’s strange end

A carpenter who hired a taxi to carry a set of furniture from Dzorwulu to Kissiehman, both suburbs of Accra, could not believe the turn of events when he learnt that the driver of the cab, Tei Narh, had been only minutes away from his death.

The carpenter, Nat Tawiah, told The Mirror that at about 3.30 pm on June 9, he hired the taxi at the Dimples Junction at Dzorwulu, and on reaching the traffic lights close to the Achimota Police Station, the cab was stopped by a policeman, who asked for the driver's licence.

After producing the document, the driver was asked by the policeman to park the vehicle and accompany him to the police station. The driver obliged and proceeded to the station, leaving the carpenter behind in the vehicle.

According to Nat, after waiting for about 10 minutes, he decided to follow up to find out what was keeping the driver. On entering the charge office, he found the driver lying face upward on the floor in front of the police counter. That was at 4:00 pm.

"On noticing the driver, I was surprised and asked the police what had had happened. I was told that he slumped down just as he was about to be questioned," he said.

Following several attempts to wake the driver from his slumber without success, Nat said he informed the police on duty about Tei's condition, but was told not to mind him as he was only putting on an act.

"It was only later, after realising the seriousness of the situation that the police asked me to take the driver to the hospital, and this I did single-handedly."

"At the Achimota Hospital, the security man at the gate would not allow the taxi with me and the collapsed driver in, unless he saw his condition and upon inspection, he informed me that the man I was bringing in was already dead,” he said.

Subsequently, Nat said he had to go back to the police station with the motionless driver, following which he was accompanied by the policeman who caused the driver's arrest back to the hospital. On closer examination by the doctor on duty, Tei was officially declared dead.

At this point, personnel from the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Tesano Police Station which has jurisdiction over the Achimota Police Station stepped in to convey the corpse to the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital.

Meanwhile, checks that The Mirror made at the Tesano Police Station confirmed the story, but a source told the paper that investigators remain baffled and were awaiting autopsy report, which would aid further investigations.

For the moment, the family of the deceased also say they are, awaiting results of the autopsy before deciding the next action.