11-Year-Old Electrocuted

An effort of a young man to deter thieves from entering his room by electrifying his window turned tragic when an 11-year-old girl was electrocuted by his burglar-proof metal window at Alogboshie in Accra. The deceased, identified as Juliet Ofori, was a class four pupil of the Alogboshie Lower Primary School, near Achimota. Suspect on the run The incident was reported to the Achimota Mile 7 Police and when the Daily Graphic contacted the Crime Officer, Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), Mr Henry Agbeve, he said the owner of the windows, identified only as Michael, 27, was currently on the run. He said the suspect had electrified the burglar-proof window with a live wire plugged to a source of electricity in his room and �used an old Samsung mobile phone battery as a bait to attract prospective thieves�. Mother of deceased The mother of the deceased, Mrs Faustina Ofori, said she had gone to undertake her trading activities at Dome, near Accra, and about 5p.m. on Saturday, June 6, 2014, some co-tenants rushed to inform her of the incident. She said her husband was also at work when he received the message about the electrocution of their child and rushed home. Juliet Ofori was the third of their five children. Shout for help A co-tenant in the house, Madam Janet Appiani, said on that fateful evening, Juliet was at home preparing the evening meal for the family. She said Juliet, at a point, packed all the cooking utensils indoors and went out of the house to buy some kitchen film to wrap the food she was preparing. �Then about three minutes after she had left, a young girl came shouting for help and asking of the whereabouts of Juliet�s mother,� she said. Madam Appiani continued that the girl informed her and other tenants in the house that Juliet had been electrocuted by a window. �So we rushed to the scene but we saw a group of young men from the area detaching her from the window with a stick after which they poured cold water on her to revive her,� she said. After they had failed to resuscitate her, some good Samaritans rushed her to the Achimota Hospital but she was pronounced dead. Thoroughfare Madam Appiani explained that the window was located in a lane between two houses used by residents as a thoroughfare. Because it had rained, she said many passersby were tempted to walk close to the wall of the house and �anyone who slips or who is afraid of slipping will be tempted to hold the window as a form of security�. According to some neighbours of the suspect, Michael, he claimed he had GH�1,200 cash on him and was afraid of being attacked by robbers. The body of Juliet has since been deposited at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital morgue.