Girl, 17, Commits Suicide

A former form two student of Manya Krobo Senior High School, Eunice Lartey, has committed suicide, the police in Somanya have said. A passerby found Eunice, 17, hanging on a mango tree behind her house at Somanya at about 3:30 p.m. on Thursday. The Somanya District Commander of the Ghana Police Service, Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), Mr Albert Deletsa, told the Daily Graphic that the police had information that a teenager had been found hanging on a mango tree behind a house on the Yilo Krobo Municipal Chief Executive road and close to the Ghana Health Service offices at Somanya. The police proceeded to the scene and found the body of Eunice hanging on a mango tree, with a nylon rope tied around her neck. He said the body was carefully examined, removed and deposited at the Atua Government Hospital morgue awaiting autopsy. According to DSP Deletsa, no marks of violence were found on the body and no suicide note was found on her or in her home either. According to a family member, Eunice had not been happy because of the inability of the parents to pay her school fees. Eunice completed junior high school in Tema in the 2012/2013 academic year after which she was enrolled at the Manya Krobo Senior High School (MAKROSEC). She was a day student who commuted from Somanya until second term of the last academic year when she relocated to his father�s house at Nuaso, close to the school. Causes According to the mother of the deceased, Mrs Evelyn Lartey, along the line, the father of the girl could not pay her fees and, therefore, she stopped going to the school without her knowledge. She said she visited the school before she got to know from the teachers and students that her daughter had stopped going to school. Worried about her daughter, Ms Lartey said she took her daughter to Somanya where she stayed with her maternal grandmother while she was making arrangements for her to start schooling at the Yilo Krobo Senior High School. According to Mrs Lartey, authorities of the Yilo Krobo Senior High School requested for the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) results slip of her daughter but she was unable to obtain it because the headmaster of Eunice�s junior high school was not immediately available. Since then, Eunice had become disappointed and moody. However, she did not show any sign until the incident. The body has since been sent to the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital for autopsy.