9 suicides committed within 14 days

The reported suicide incident yesterday of a Primary Five pupil at Dome Pillar Two in Accra, brings to 10 the number of alleged suicide cases recorded in the last 14 days.

Worvi Bright, a 32-year-old trailer driver, was found Monday morning hanging on a tree near the Ashaiman Irrigation Development site just as a primary five pupil of Aggrey Primary School at Achimota identified as Belinda Gabla, 14, was also found hanging on a tree on Saturday, March 11, 2017 at about 7:30 pm close to their residence at Dome.

The lifeless body of Worvi Bright, dressed in a pair of jeans trousers with bare chest, was said to have been found by a resident who had woken up to attend nature’s call in a nearby bush.

His corpse has been deposited at the Tema General Hospital pending autopsy and burial.

Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Juliana Obeng, who confirmed the incident to DAILY GUIDE, said that police got information about the incident at about 2:30 am and dispatched personnel to the area.

She said her outfit had initiated full-scale investigation into the circumstances under which the incident occurred.

She noted that the man hanged himself without a note stating his reason.

However, some residents said the man was unknown in the area and believed he might have traveled from somewhere to hang himself in the bush near the MTN Park.

Speaking with DAILY GUIDE, the assembly member for the Nii Doku Electoral Area, Yusif Gariba, explained that “It was around 6am that I was called by a member of the Watchdog Committee in the area that a young man had allegedly committed suicide on a Nim tree at Jericho.”

According to him, he rushed to the place to see things for himself and indeed it was true.

“When I got here I tried getting some of the area guys to identify the person but unfortunately, none of them could identify the face so I suspect he is not from the area but he just came to commit the act here.”

On the same day, a patient at the Ekye Presbyterian Health Center at Affram Plains in the Eastern Region, who was identified as Liticia Amartey, was also seen hanging on a reservoir near the hospital Monday morning.

Prior to that on Sunday at about 10am, an unknown man was reported to have committed suicide at Hallelujah, a suburb of Mataheko in the Ningo-Prampram District of the Greater Accra Region.

He was found by some residents in the bush hanging on a tree.

On Saturday, March 11, 2017, a 70-year-old man, Tetteh McCarthy, a resident of Dogo, a suburb of Ada, allegedly killed himself in his room.

He was said to have informed the family about his intention to commit the heinous crime on any of the Fridays.

Information indicated that his family jokingly asked him to prepare and provide the necessary things for his burial before taking his life – if he was going to honoured his promise.

The deceased was said to have gone to his room and brought GH¢1,400 as expenses for his burial, specifically to buy his coffin and pay his grave diggers.

A relative, who confirmed the man’s death to DAILY GUIDE said, “He said he wanted to kill himself because he had been neglected by his family. This is because his sister bought another sister a phone and did not get him one, which provoked him.”

Last week, two young university students – a final-year student, Jennifer Nyarko of the University of Ghana and Adwoa Agyarkwa Anyimadu-Antwi, a petrochemical engineering student of Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), allegedly took their lives.

A 16-year-old girl was also reported to have committed suicide at New Tafo in the Eastern Region.

Barbara Asante was found hanging in the kitchen of her parents.

A man in his 30s purportedly committed suicide at Achimota in Accra.