Highlife Musician Commits Suicide

ACE highlife musician Tommy Wiredu was on Monday morning found dead in what is suspected to be suicide ? in his room at Dichemso, a suburb of Kumasi.

Thommy was found hanging with a nylon sponge tied around his neck on a crossbar in his bedroom with his tongue protruding.

When policemen visited the scene near a drinking spot, popularly called Daasebre Spot, no clue of the cause of his death was readily available, as no message was left in his room.

At about 10.30 a.m. a lot of people had gathered there, and most of them including women, children and friends were weeping uncontrollably, wondering what might have compelled Thommy to alledged commit the suicide.

The crowd besieged the scene of the incident as news went round the Kumasi Metropolis about the mode of death of the musician?s death. This made it very difficult for the security officers to conduct investigations to establish the true cause of the death.

According to family sources, they only detected the incident in the morning around 9 a.m. when Thommy who is noted for waking up early failed to do so.

The sources said, on Sunday night, Thommy allegedly stayed at the Daasebre Drinking Spot with his friends deep into the night before retiring to bed.

It said early on Monday, the family were expecting that he would wake up early as usual, but he failed to do so. Some of them decided to knock at his door to enquire about his health, but he failed to respond to the persistent knocking.

According to the sources, the residents who became suspicious, as it was uncommon for Thommy to stay in his room for longer hours they looked through the keyhole and found that the keys to the room were still in the hole, indicating that he was still in bed.

They therefore forced open the door only to find him hanging on a cross bar.

Shocked about the spectacle, they rushed to break the news to his mother and the police.
Although no reasons were readily available as to why he might have allegedly committed the suicide, close family sources indicated that, might have of alleged persistent harassment of some friends that he owe.

He was alleged to have collected ?25 million from his friends with the assurance that he would take them abroad on one of his trips but he failed to honour the promise.

According to the sources, the constant harassment forced Thommy to sell his BMW saloon car with registration number GR 2822 R to pay ?10 million out of the ?25 million he owed them.

It said after selling the car to settle part of the debt, Thommy, who could not withstand the constant pressure from his friends and the police, sneaked to Accra but he was arrested on Friday, April 4, 2003.

The sources indicated that officers from the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) who allegedly arrested him in Accra over the debt sent him to the Tesano Police Station, where he was detained.

The source said Thommy?s mother, who heard of the arrest rushed to the Police Station and with the help of some friends managed to secure a bail for him and later escorted him to Kumasi.

It said the family were making arrangements to settle the debt to enable Thommy to concentrate on his career when the shocking news broke out. Thommy is survived with a wife and a son.