The Koforidua Effiduase District Police Command has initiated an investigation into a tragic incident that claimed the lives of three technicians who suffocated inside a reservoir located at the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) office at Koforidua in the Eastern region.
The Monday incident has left the community in shock and mourning.
The three individuals involved in the incident were only identified as Ashie, Octopus, and Jonathan. They were part of a team of five technical experts who had been contracted by the PBC workshop to carry out maintenance work on the fuel reservoir at the COCOBOD office.
The circumstances leading to the suffocation remain unclear at this time. Tragically, in an attempt to rescue their colleague who had entered the reservoir, two other workers also succumbed to the same fate.
Colleagues of the victims who were present at the scene promptly reported the incident to the relevant authorities, triggering a swift response.
An emergency response team, comprising personnel from the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) Municipal Secretariat, Effiduase Police Command, Ghana Ambulance Service, and the Ghana National Fire Service, swiftly arrived at the location to aid in the retrieval of the victims’ bodies from the underground tank.
The Deputy Municipal Director of NADMO for New Juaben North, Kankam Twumasi Daniel, told Citi News that the police have already commenced investigations to unravel the circumstances leading to the incident.
“Around 11 o’clock, NADMO received a call about an incident at PBC yard. So we had to rush there. When we got there, per our investigations, five gentlemen were contracted by the management of the facility to do some maintenance work in their reservoir tank containing fuel and unfortunately, three of them had drowned.
“We had to call other departments, thus the Ghana Fire Service, Ghana Police Service, and Ambulance Service so that we could extricate the bodies from the tank” he said.
Furthermore, Mr. Twumasi Daniel noted that the bodies of the deceased have been taken to the St. Joseph’s Hospital mortuary in Effiduase for preservation and autopsy.