An abandoned galamsey site at Peminase in the Ejisu-Juaben in the Ashanti Region, has claimed the life of a 21 year old boy, Yaw Boakye.
A cousin of the deceased who is the Assembly Member for the area, Owusu Asante Ahmed, said the deceased and his colleagues were working at a construction firm close to the site when he fell into the pit.
Mr. Asante explained that, colleagues of the deceased wanted to initially help him after he fell into the pit, but they failed after several attempts, prompting them to inform elders of the community about the incident.
“He went there as a labourer at the construction site so after the day’s work, all the labourers decided to go there and wash themselves in the abandoned Galamsey pit. The water was so deep that he could not control himself after diving into the water so later on the boys around thought that they could not save him so they decided to come to the community and inform the elders; so I drove to the place and we found some swimmers to get him out of the pond.”
“Before we could bring him out of the pond, he was already dead, but me not being a medical officer could not confirm his death so I took him to a nearby medical centre for a medical assistant to confirm for us and they said he was dead already.”
A few weeks ago, a similar incident, involving a 15-year-old Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) candidate of the Sekyere Himang Methodist JHS in the Wassa East District of the Western Region, occurred.
The deceased, Ransford Donkor, reportedly went to wash in the abandoned pit after carrying farm produce from his village to Hemang, which is few meters away for onward transportation to Beposo, a popular market centre.
His lifeless body was found floating in the pit by some community members who retrieved it for burial.
Abandoned galamsey pits over the years trapped many people and taken lives.
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(Via: CitiFM Online Ghana)