Five persons died when a canoe they were travelling on board capsized on the Oti River at Wasawasa in the Kpandai District of the Northern Region.

DAILY GUIDE gathered that the bodies of the deceased, Abochie Bigreni, 22, and Tibisi Masonzi, 18, Tilacha Mandi, 18, Mamjo Soya, 19, Kwame Ndinba, 15, have been retrieved from the river and deposited at the ECG Hospital mortuary at Kpandai pending autopsy.

The paper gathered that the deceased decided to take part in an entertainment show after a funeral.

The Kpandai District Police Commander DSP Francis Akwasi Asante, who confirmed the incident to DAILY GUIDE, said the incident occurred on Saturday, 8th December 2018 at dawn.

He indicated that the Assemblyman for Wasaawasa one Batamba reported the matter to the police.

According to him, the five persons got missing after their canoe capsized on the Oti River.

“We sent a team to Wasawasa, but when they got there, the community had already organized volunteer swimmers to search for the five bodies in the river,” DSP Francis Akwasi Asante stated.

He said the bodies of Abochie Bigreni and Tibisi Masonzi were retrieved from the river on Saturday at about 5pm by the search team from the community.

The bodies of the remaining three- Tilacha Mandi, Mamjo Soya, Kwame Ndinba, were retrieved in the early hours of Sunday.

The Kpandai District Police Commander stated that an autopsy would be conducted before the bodies would be released to the families for burial.