Late Achimota student killed by bullet not firecracker - Family

A family in Accra is contesting the death of their daughter who died under what they have described as bizarre circumstances.

The 16-year-old final year student of Achimota Senior High School, Lily Dzigbordi Asigbetse, reportedly left home to go pay her school fees at the bank but ended up at her friend’s house, only to be hit by a stray firecracker according to claims by the victim’s friend. She was rushed to hospital but did not survive.

Relatives of Asigbetse are disputing the story as told by her friend, whose name has been withheld. The deceased’s family believes their daughter was hit by a stray bullet and not firecrackers.

A member of the bereaved family, Peggy Ama Donkor, narrating the incident on 12Live on Class91.3FM on Friday, 6 January said: “She (Asigbetse) left home to go pay her fees at the bank and ended up at a friend’s house in Tema. I had just closed from work and had a call to come to the 37 Military Hospital because she had been rushed to the theatre. When I got there, I met the guy’s parents and [his] mother told us that our daughter was hit by a stray firecracker. But after thorough investigation, it came out that it was rather a gunshot.”

According to Ms Donkor the autopsy and reports from the police point to the fact that Asigbetse died from a bullet from a pump action gun and not from injuries from a firecracker.

She narrated that when the family conducted further investigations of its own, the accused’s mother argued that the gun was registered. “What we are saying is that how did your son get the gun and if the gun was registered does it guarantee that if it is used to shoot somebody the person should go scot-free?” she quizzed.

“They cooked up a story because they wanted us to believe it was a firecracker.” According to her, the family will follow up on the case to its logical conclusion.

“We are going to take this case to whatever extent we can. We will not let it go, we want the logical conclusion to this story. We want it to serve as a deterrent to parents who have guns at home and don’t hide it out of the reach of their children. And for some parents who think they have connections and money so they can buy their way through, we are not going to let this story go,” she assured.