‘Dead’ man appears at family gathering

Family members and friends who had gathered to mourn the death of their beloved took to their heels when the man who was supposed to be dead showed up.

On Sunday, July 6, 2014, Mr Isaac Asante arrived home from work to find a crowd in mourning cloths in his house.

A canopy had been erected, while dirges were being sung on mounted loud speakers, but as soon as some members of his family spotted him, they ran helter skelter. 

A surprised Mr Asante tried to find out why they were running from him but no one would stop to answer him.

A call from the police 

After a while, one of the family members who had mustered courage told Mr Asante that he was supposed to have been knocked down and killed by a vehicle and that they had gathered to mourn him.

The family member explained that one of Mr Asante’s sisters had received a call, and although the number on the phone showed that the call was from Mr Asante, the caller identified himself as a policeman.

The policeman was said to have enquired from the recipient of the call whether she knew the owner of the number that had called her, to which she answered in the affirmative.

She was then directed to report at the Odorkor Police Motor Traffic and Transport Department (MTTD) for a piece of information.

At the station, the sister, who showed up with some family members, was told that the owner of the phone had died instantly on Saturday, July 5, 2014 after he had been knocked down by a vehicle at Bubuashie in Accra.

The police informed the family that the body had been deposited at the Police Hospital morgue and invited them to the morgue to identify it the next day.

News Spread 

However, before the family could identify the body, news spread that Mr Asante had died, leading to the gathering of mourners in his house.

After hearing the reason for the gathering, Mr Asante told the few family members who had returned that his phone had been snatched from him while he was on his way to work the previous day.

He explained that he had returned home a day after the incident because he had worked on the night shift.

Phone thief 

The Odorkor Police Commander of the MTTD, Deputy Superintendent of Police Mr Abdullah Mumuni, confirmed the incident and said a man had been knocked down by a commercial vehicle, with registration number GW 9888-13.

The driver of the vehicle, Mr Benjamin Duku, had told the police, who had rushed to the scene, that the victim was making a phone call while crossing the street.

Since the victim died instantly and there was no form of identification on him, the police decided to call the contacts on the Nokia phone which was found not far from where he had fallen.

Later, Mr Asante identified the body of the victim in the morgue as the man who had snatched his phone. 

Meanwhile, the phone snatcher is yet to be identified, as the police were yet to receive any report of a missing person from relations of the victim.

Writer’s email: emelia.ennin@graphic.com.gh