Six drown in River Offin, following heavy downpour

GNA – Six people, including a seven-month old baby girl, drowned in the River Offin as the canoe in which they were travelling on to their farm at Amadaa near Nyinahin in the Atwima-Mponua District of the Ashanti Region, on Saturday capsized.

A day after the incident, only one body, identified as Abena Mary Ramatu, 61, a Muslim, had been retrieved and buried in accordance with Islamic tradition.

The incident comes in the wake of a heavy downpour which had flooded many parts of the Region, destroying property worth several thousands of Ghana Cedis.

This brings to seven, the number of people who had so far perished in the wake of the rainstorm.

When GNA visited the town on Sunday, a rescue team, made of swimmers, volunteers and personnel of Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) and Ghana Police Service were still making frantic efforts to retrieve the bodies of those still missing.

Mr. Martin Prempeh, Assemblyman for Amadaa, disclosed that those missing included one Wofa Yaw, 45, and his son, Owura, 21, as well as Olivia, 10, who is a sister to the seventh-month old deceased and a middle-aged man, yet to be identified.

Information-pieced-together indicated that a total of 13 people were on board the canoe, however, seven of them managed to swim to safety, leaving the others to their fate.

The incident had thrown the town into a state of mourning as families of those still missing wailed uncontrollably.

Mr. Isaac Kwame Asiamah, Member of Parliament (MP) for Atwima-Mponua, as well as the District Chief Executive (DCE), Mr. William Darko, had called on the affected families to commiserate with them.

GNA