Two Boys Drown In Kumasi

Two boys, aged 13 and 14, died tragically at Anloga, a Kumasi suburb, last Friday when they drowned in a pool of water left behind by contractors who had worked on the Oforikrom-Asokwa road.

The children, who were playmates and lived in the same house at Anloga, had gone to swim in the pool but they could not come out after they had jumped into the six-foot deep water.

They were identified as Michael Sekyere, 14, a pupil of Obiri Yeboah Basic School at New Amakom, and Joshua Agor, 13, a pupil of the Global Evangelical Basic School at Susankyi.

Residents told the Daily Graphic that the pool, located about 200 metres away from the residence of the deceased children, had been left stagnant following construction work on the road.

For some time now, children in the area have been going to the site to swim in the pool.

About 5 p.m. last Friday, three children, including the deceased, went to the site to swim.

On reaching the site, Agor was the first to jump into the pool and, after swimming for a few minutes, he came out.

When he came out, Sekyere also jumped into the water but, unfortunately, he began to drown.

As he screamed for help, Agor decided to play the saviour by jumping into the pool, but that marked the beginning of the end of the two.

Just after getting into the pool, Agor also began to drown and he started shouting for help. But no help went their way, as the 10-year-old boy who accompanied them was helpless.

Before rescuers could go to their aid, they had sunk to the bottom of the pool.

It took about 15 minutes for a search party to retrieve the bodies of the two.

The police later went to the scene to start investigations into the incident.

The bodies of the two had since been deposited at the morgue of the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital.

Meanwhile, the assembly member for the Anloga West Electoral Area, in an interview, accused the contractors for doing a shoddy job by failing to drain the water in the pool.

He said a number of such stagnant pools had been left behind by the contractors along the new road, a development which posed danger to people, particularly, children.

The assembly member stressed the need for the contractors to, as a matter of urgency, rectify the situation before it led to more deaths in the area.

graphic.com.gh