Tabloid News of Monday, 9 July 2007

Source: dailyEXPRESS

Man snubs kids for television set

The decision by a 36-year old auto-mechanic at Tema Newtown, a suburb of Tema is regretting his decision to rather prevent his 14-inch television from being carried away by floods instead of saving his children.

The two young children- a boy (5) and a girl (3) were swept away by the powerful moving water moments after their father left them to chase the TV set during last Wednesday’s rains which flooded parts of Tema.

Now, the man, Abbey Quaye said the situation has become too heavy a load for him to bear.

Abbey is among many who put up in some wooden structures said to be close to the Chemu lagoon. The rains and subsequent floods destroyed the structures and washed property and at least two persons away.

According to eyewitnesses, the floods swept away lots of properties into the lagoon. Abbey who had already lost most of his properties could not stand the sight of losing his television set as well.

He therefore left the children to chase the floating TV set, resulting in the innocent and defenseless children being carried away. Abbey, witnesses told the dailyEXPRESS began calling out the names of his two children when he returned and could not find them.

A neighbour later told the frustrated and dejected looking father that he saw “some objects that looked like human beings swept away from this very rock.”

As at the time of filing this report the bodies of the two children were yet to be recovered.

Last Wednesday’s down pour caused major damage to property, the roads and razed some structures down. Some small scale fuel service station operators watched as their tanks rolled away in the flood waters.

dailyEXPRESS cameraman Benjamin Adjei managed to take some shots of the devastating effects of the rain. In one of the pictures, residents could be seen clinging to the rooftop of their building while others battled with floating waste which was finding its way into their rooms.

Again, the sorrowful state of the chemu lagoon has become more evident, and dailyEXPRESS checks has confirmed that the metallic bridge has caved in and must be salvaged before another disaster happens.