Blind Man Commits Suicide At Ashaiman

John Kwaku Essuman, a 56-year-old blind man who is being ejected from his rented apartment, apparently for his inability to settle his rent, allegedly committed suicide by hanging at Official Town, a suburb of Ashaiman.

When the Daily Graphic got to the scene at about 8:15a.m. on Monday, the deceased, with a nylon rope around his neck, was hanging from the ceiling of his room.

An eye witness, Ms Jemima Frimpong, who is a co-tenant, told this reporter that she, together with the deceased, had been living in the house for the past two years.

Story : Della Russel Ocloo

Ms Frimpong said following the deceased’s condition, he had been living on the benevolence of co-tenants, as well as neighbours, after his wife allegedly abandoned him when he lost his job with the Super Paper Products in Tema some years ago.

She said their landlord had served all tenants in the house with a a three-day quit notice to pave the way for renovation works he intended carrying out on the building. The notices expired on Tuesday, July 28, 2009.

Ms Frimpong said when she woke up at 4a.m. to do her general morning cleaning, the deceased also came out to empty a container of urine and went back into his room.

She said she was however alarmed when he didn’t come out for his usual morning bath at about 7:30am since he was the first person to do so in the household.

Sensing danger, she informed another co-tenant who went with her to knock on his door, “and since we could not hear any response, we forcefully opened the door only to find him hanging”, she remarked.

A report was subsequently made to the Ashaiman Police Station and police personnel came to convey the body to the mortuary. When contacted on telephone, the Ashaiman Divisional Crime Officer, Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Theophilus Nartey, told the Daily Graphic that the body had been deposited at the Police Hospital mortuary awaiting autopsy, whilst investigations were underway.

He said preliminary investigations revealed that the deceased might have committed suicide out of frustration as he had been living a lonely life since he lost his job.

DSP Nartey said the deceased, in the early part of this year, drank a poisonous substance in attempt to end his life but his co-tenants rushed him to the Tema General Hospital to save his life.