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The body of a man was retrieved from an open manhole near his house at Glefe, near Dansoman in Accra last Tuesday. Family members identified the body as that of 42-year-old William Kwabena Afriyie, popularly known as Red. He was a money band supplier.

It is believed that he was tipsy but it was not clear if he tripped while walking in the dark as there was a power outage or he fell over while sitting on the edge of the open manhole. The five feet and four inches deep manhole was under construction by the landlord of an adjacent house.  The body was found in  brown shorts lying face up in the shallow water in the manhole.

By 6 a.m. the news had attracted people from the area to the Glefe Yellow House residence of the deceased.

Weeping
When the Daily Graphic visited the scene, neighbours and family members were seen consoling the widow of the deceased, Ms Millicent Kobi. Ms Kobi, who spoke to the Daily Graphic while wailing intermittently, said her husband’s body was found at about 5 a.m. last Tuesday by some co-tenants in the compound house.

She said on Monday evening there was a power outage in the area and at about 8 p.m. her husband complained that the room was too warm “so he took a shirt and went out for fresh air.” Three hours later, her husband returned to the room to take GHc1 to buy bread in the neighbourhood.

After waiting for a while, Ms Kobi said, she tried calling her husband on his phone since he could not be seen in the house.

Suspicion 
“I called him so many times but he was not answering my calls. So I called his uncle who lives close by. I was unable to sleep throughout the night. My husband was not answering my calls and I did not know his whereabouts”, she said. She said at dawn, she woke  their two children up and was getting them ready for school when one of the tenants, Ms Millicent Kumi, knocked on the door.

Ms Kobi said the tenant notified her that she had found the body of Afriyie close to the manhole “but I said that was not possible because my husband went out last night with his phone and he has still not returned”,  she stated.

Body found 
Ms Kobi said with the help of the landlord, the police were called to the scene.  The Dansoman Divisional Police Commander, Assistant Commissioner of Police, Mr Antwi Tabi, confirmed the story and said the body had been deposited at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital in Accra.