General News of Wednesday, 7 June 2006

Source: GNA

Sunyani Police stop burial of Airline Manager

Sunyani, June 7, The Sunyani Police have stopped the planned burial on Saturday of Manager of City-Link, Mr Kwabena Yeboah, who died after attempting to swim in a swimming pool at Eusbett Hotel in Sunyani on Monday.

Chief Superintendent Christian Tetteh Yohuno, Sunyani Municipal Police Commander, told GNA that the Police were still investigating the circumstances surrounding the death and why the case was not reported to the Police.

He said one Abeiku of Kumasi and one Catherine, who were alleged to be with the Manager of the private internal airline company based in Kumasi at the time of the incident, had been invited to assist in the investigations.

He said the Police was baffled as to why the body was taken away from the Regional Hospital in Sunyani and deposited at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital in Kumasi without a post-mortem being conducted on the body.

He explained that the Police had received information that the family of the deceased had planned to bury him at the weekend and this had aroused their suspicion about the circumstances surrounding the death.

Meanwhile, Dr Isaac Akuamuah Boateng of the Regional Hospital in Sunyani, who initially attended to the late Yeboah confirmed that no autopsy was conducted on the body because a relative of the deceased requested for it.

He explained that Mr Yaw Owusu Boadi, the relative, told him that they had no relatives in Sunyani and since the whole family lived in Kwamo, near Kumasi, it would be convenient for the body to be conveyed to the Komfo Anokye Hospital in Kumasi for autopsy.

Dr Akuamuah, who was speaking to the GNA in an interview, said since relatives had the right to determine where an autopsy should be conducted on a dead relative, he gave them the go ahead.

He said the late Yeboah was brought to the Hospital unconscious at midnight and was heavily drunk. He explained that after he had attended to him and revived him, the deceased insisted that he would not stay at the Hospital and walked out of the Consulting Room unaided. Dr Akuamuah said he prescribed some medicines and asked him to report at 0800 hours. He said when he encountered the late Yeboah at 0645 hours he had already died.

In view of this tragedy the Airline had to cancel its programme to officially launch its operation in Sunyani. The late Yeboah left behind a wife and two children.