A 54-year-old man known as Kwaku Awuni popularly known as Santo has committed suicide by hanging in Wasa Hintaado in the Amenfi East district in the western region.

Mr. Kofi Azuma, a brother of the deceased, said his brother attempted suicide by taking a poisonous substance last Thursday but they hastily rushed him to the hospital for treatment and then threatened to report him to the police should he try it again.

He added that, he received a call from the deceased’s children that his brother had left home carrying a sponge so he traced him only to find him hanging on a cocoa tree dead.

The Chief of the town Nana Kofi Boateng also blamed the ban on galamsey activities in the community for being the cause of the strange deaths in the community.

He therefore appealed to the government and the security agencies especially the operation vanguard to tighten the ban on galamsey to curtail the cruelty happening in some of the galamsey affected areas and also asked for thorough investigation into the death of Awuni.