<<Print>>

NANA KOFI Seboh II, chief of Apewosika near Axim in the Western Region and family member of the late Osofo Efua Esson, 95, whose body was deposited at the Axim Government Hospital morgue but got lost under mysterious circumstances, has revealed that there were clear indications that the dead body was angry and refused to be buried by a different family. The chief alleged that the body of Osofo Esson, who died at home on April 19, 2011 after a short illness, had mistakenly been buried by members of a different family who were wrongly given the body when they went to the morgue to claim the body of their relation for burial. Speaking to Daily Guide in an exclusive interview yesterday, Nana Seboh II noted that information he gathered indicated that when the family members who mistakenly took Osofo Esson�s body away from the morgue were traveling back to their destination, their vehicle strangely broke down on the road on three consecutive occasions. �This was a clear indication that the dead body was angry and did not want to be buried by the alleged strangers who were mistakenly given the body of Osofo Esson for burial when they went to the morgue to claim their body for burial,� he noted. He could however not tell where exactly those family members came from and said the hospital authorities could also not trace those who allegedly claimed the wrong body from the morgue. He mentioned that another sign that indicated that the late Osofo Esson was angry when she was mistakenly delivered to another family was the fact that the son of the mortuary attendant popularly called �Shegey�, who allegedly gave the dead body out, was bitten by a big snake around the hospital on the same day. Meanwhile, the family members of the late Osofo Esson had given the authorities of the Axim Government Hospital a one-month ultimatum to produce the body or face their wrath. The chief of Apewosika indicated that the late Osofo Efua Esson was a pastor at St. Anthony Healing Church in the area and died at home on April 19, 2011 after a short illness. He said the body was deposited at the Axim hospital morgue on the same day she passed away by members of the Nsona family, but the family could not find the body when they went there to retrieve it for burial on May 20, 2011. He noted that the caretaker at the morgue rather showed the family members the body of a different woman, whom they rejected, insisting that the hospital should produce the body they deposited in the morgue. According to him, the body of their relation had mistakenly been given to another family that also purportedly deposited their dead body at the morgue and that the unclaimed dead body was still at the morgue. �In fact, when they brought the body from the refrigerator, the family realized that it had its hair plaited but Osofo Esson�s hair was not plaited before or after she died, so they realized that the body was not that of our relation,� he added. He stressed that it was the responsibility of the health workers to have tagged their relation for easy identification instead of just tying a piece of cloth on the hand and added that the case had been reported to the police. He said even though the body had not been found, the necessary rituals had been performed by the family members, most of whom hailed from Dutch Komenda in the Central Region. Mr. Owusu Asare, Administrator of the Axim Government Hospital, confirmed that the dead body was indeed missing at the hospital�s morgue and noted that there was an unclaimed body now at the morgue and believed that the mortuary attendants might have mistakenly released the body of Osofo Esson to another family. When Daily Guide called the Acting Medical Superintendent of the Hospital, Mathias Tengan, he confirmed that the family of the deceased had given the hospital a one-month ultimatum to find the body.