Corpse missing at LEKMA hospital

The parents of a 14-year-old Class Five pupil who was killed in a motor accident at the A-Life Junction on the Teshie-Nungua road are feverishly looking for her corpse missing at the Ledzokuku Krowor Municipal Assembly (LEKMA) hospital morgue where it was deposited after the accident.

According to family sources, the corpse which was placed under the supervision of a medical doctor, (name withheld), on Friday, September 20, 2013 was missing by Monday, September 23, 2013 when the family went there to bring the corpse home for burial.

The girl, Olivia Tagoe, a pupil of Dar-er-Salam Primary School in the community, was knocked and killed by a speeding motor bike with registration number MB GR 01347 and killed instantly. According to eye-witnesses, about 10 other people were severely injured in the same accident.

One of the eye-witnesses, Mr. Isaac Ansah Asante, told this paper that the motorbike was heading towards Nungua at a top speed at about 8:30 A.M., when the girl had almost finished crossing the road to the right end of the pedestrian crossing. He said the motor rider ignored several shouts of people around to slow down and so knocked down the girl and other persons, who were severely injured in the process.

Mr. Asante added that someone reported the incident to the Nungua Police who succeeded in arresting the motor rider, while the girl was taken to the LEKMA hospital for medical attention.

It is from the list of books in the girl’s school bag that people found her name and other information that enabled a taxi driver to trace her family to tell the bizarre news.

According to a source, the 14-year-old girl died during her referral to Korle Bu Teaching Hospital.

The source also said the Ghana Police Criminal Investigations Department (CID) person in-charge of the case, one Corporal Botchway, is refusing to tell her family the name and identity of the motor rider, who is still in their custody.

Rather to deepen the woes of the bereaved family, when they visited the Nungua police station for details on the incident, they were requested to pay two hundred Ghana cedis (GH¢200.00) for the processing of papers on their deceased daughter.

The father of the deceased, Mr. Alex Tagoe, told this reporter he was shocked at the news.

The taxi drivers at the A-Life Supermarket Junction admitted that accidents are a constant occurrence along the highway, and thus called on Urban Roads and Ghana Highways Authority to do something to end them, and suggested speed ramps as a possible solution.

As at the time of filing this report, the corpse of the deceased had been found by the family lying on the bare floor of the LEKMA Hospital morgue.

The families are however, appealing to the Ghana Police Service to grant them access to the motor rider.