Autopsy report for Kumasi Academy deaths out on Wednesday

The autopsy report on the four students of the Kumasi Academy who have lost their lives in the last few days will be ready tomorrow, Wednesday April 5, Rev Jonathan Bettey, Public Relations Officer of the Ghana Education Service (GES), has said.

According to him, although the GES is conducting its own investigations into the death of the students, a pathologist was contracted to ascertain the cause of the deaths.

The number of students from the Kumasi Academy SHS who have lost their lives over suspected food poisoning has risen to four.

The latest casualty is a first year science student of the school whose parents have informed authorities of the school of his death.

The Public Relations Officer of the Ashanti Regional Education Directorate, Cassandra Antwi, confirmed to Class FM in an interview on Monday, April 3.

“We have a total of four,” she said, adding: “This student, we are told he went home without exeat. He had told his friends that he was going for school fees but after authorities checked, it turned out that he was not owing any fees.”

Speaking in an interview with Chief Jerry Forson, host of Ghana Yensom, on Accra100.5FM on Tuesday April 4, Rev Bettey said: “Yesterday (Monday April 3), the management of Ghana Education Service received a report from the regional director saying that o [a lot of] information that entered the public domain [was] exaggerated. Some of the information were not true and it is putting parents into panic... The students who died over there are just four students, but people were reporting about seven and eight. So the reports are not the same; we lost four students in that school.

“We have also investigated and we have asked that the pathologist also work on the children and give out the report. We have been informed that tomorrow, Wednesday, the report will come out as to what actually happened to the four children before they died.”