There was pandemonium at the Prampram Public Cemetery over the weekend when the body of a prison officer, Nii Ayitey Botchway, which was meant for interment, dropped from the casket.
The incident which sent wailing mourners running helter-skelter at all angles for their lives also triggered spontaneous tripping over one another for fear of the obvious.
Ayitey Botchway, 50, a Chief Officer of the Ghana Prisons Service in Kpando died on January 12, 2014 after he had been sick for two days.
DAILY GUIDE�S sources who corroborated the spectacle said that pallbearers and officers of the Service on reaching the graveyard removed the corpse from the ambulance and placed it on their shoulders amidst marching.
It said about 90 percent of the mourners and sympathizers run for their dear lives and left the family to their fate.
The source further stated that the few who decided to stay took pictures of the corpse lying on the bare floor but were quickly prevented by the officers.
�Some of us who happened to be there with the officers saw the women, some of them used their cloths to shelter the body before nails and hammer were brought from the Prampram Township by a carpenter to repair the coffin before we could put in the body.�
According to the source, the family was incensed about the unfortunate and embarrassing spectacle bringing into question the quality of the casket bought by the Prison Service.
It claimed that the family in respect of the incident after a meeting chaired by one Elder Moses Tetteh Sarpor fined the officers a crate of malt, a crate of beer and an undisclosed amount of money.
The source was emphatic that the Service was entirely to be blamed for the incident insisting that the coffin was not properly inspected by officials of the Service before purchasing it for the officer who served the country for 22 years.
Officials of the Kpando Division of the Service were not readily available for comments.
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