Veteran journalist found three days after missing in the wilderness

Hohoe, Oct 8, GNA - The Chiefs and people of Ve-Koloenu heaved a sigh of relief when after three days of intense search for the missing veteran journalist, Mr Kush Agudetse yielded positive results.

"Kush", as he is affectionately called failed to return from his farm, on the outskirts of Koloenu on Saturday, where he went to cut bamboo to support his plantain trees that were falling.


It took three different search parties under the tutelage of Togbe Tendeku VIII, Chief of Koloenu, for Kush to be recovered on Monday afternoon, after Edem Gbolovi, a tenant in his house from whom he collected a cutlass, noticed his absence and informed the Chief. Narrating his harrowing episode to the Ghana News Agency, Kush said he got missing on his own farm, after cutting some bamboo at about 1700 hours.


He said after cutting the bamboo, he started facing difficulty in relocating his bearing back home.


He said he then started gallivanting in the forest for over four hours without a clue to where he was heading. Mr Agudetse, a former employee of the Ghanaian Times, said he passed the night on grasses but for the nuisance of night mosquitoes, he would have slept well. He told the GNA that on Sunday, he started his 'aimless' journey misplacing his spectacles in an attempt to win some palm fronds to sleep on.

Mr Agudetse added, in search of clues, he came to a cottage with its inhabitants numbering about 10 people, who failed to offer any assistance, not even respond to his greetings. He described the cottage as walled, having adjoining rooms, two gates at opposite sides with swampy or marshy floor, which the inmates were comfortable walking on, but much difficult for him to move on. The veteran Journalist said the only way to move or make a stride was to cut the shrubs ahead of him to have access. "The inmates looked normal with the exception of the perceived landlord, who measured about three feet," he said. Mr Agudetse said at one point, he fiercely prevented the inmates from administering a bluish concoction, which was carefully prepared for him, by hitting its receptacle for the content to pour. He said he heard toots of moving cars and sometimes voices of people, but no one volunteered to help him catch a bus back to Golokwati to enable him connect to Koloenu. Mr Agudetse said the struggle continued until he was rescued by a contingent of townsfolk, after surmounting a trap to let him fall into a big hole.


He said he survived without food and water for three days. The talk of the town is the mystery surrounding the missing man, while the townsfolk said that Mr Agudetse was found under a big dawadawa tree, he alleges that he was rescued from the cottage. A traditional welcome ritual had been organized for him amidst firing of musketry.


Meanwhile, Mr Agudetse's disappearance was the third in the area suspected to be haven for dwarfs, but in each case special rituals were performed before the people involved were rescued.