More than 60 died through suffocation

POST-MORTEM examinations conducted on the fans who died at the Accra Stadium last Wednesday have revealed that over half died of suffocation.

A specialist pathologist at the 37 Military Hospital, Col. Dr J. Mante Wadhwani, addressed the press at the hospital in Accra yesterday, and said many others died as a result of severe head injuries, fracture of the limbs and ribs and bleeding into the chest and other cavities of the body.


Dr Wadhwani, who did not give figures of the various categories, said there are still a few more bodies in the morgue awaiting post-mortems, which would be conducted soon.


He added that the victims' families would have to serve the hospital authorities with a 72-hour notice before they would be allowed to collect the bodies. This, he said, would enable the hospital to prepare the necessary documents on the bodies before collection.


WHEN ASKED for the list of names of those who have been identified, Col Ayettey replied that the list was not yet complete and promised to make it available to the press when compilation is completed.

Col Ayettey said the hospital is compiling the necessary information for the funeral committee set up by the government. He thanked the management of local firm Funeral Homes for taking 10 of the dead in the stampede for embalming.


Meanwhile, in the morning, scores of people, mostly the youth, had besieged the hospital to collect what they termed as their share of the government’s monetary allocation to victims.


Some were successful in claiming the cost of what they spent on drugs but others were turned away for lack of evidence.