31-Year-Old Man Electrocuted In Takoradi

A 31-year-old man, Edem Akabuah, was on Thursday afternoon electrocuted by an underground cable while digging a trench for the laying of a cable. Two other colleagues of his, Christian Amenyo and Nana Yaw Mensah, were, however, treated of minor electric shocks and discharged from hospital. Edem and his colleagues had been contracted by a company to dig a trench for the laying of underground Internet cables in the Sekondi/Takoradi metropolis to serve companies in the area. Nana Mensah told the Daily Graphic that he and his colleagues had been advised to dig a spot close to Ecobank, Takoradi Harbour Branch, to avoid the disruption in banking activities. He said it was in the course of digging that they hit a live underground electricity cable, resulting in the disaster. According to him, they had, in the process, poured water on the ground to soften it, saying he was convinced that Akabuah might have died from the severity of the shock, since he was standing in the water. Moreover, he said, Akabuah was not wearing any hand gloves, neither did the gadget he was using have any protective plastic cover. Nana Mensah said he regained consciousness at hospital and was later told that Edem had passed on. At the time of filing this report, the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) was yet to restore power to the companies working in the area. The Takoradi Port Police are currently investigating the incident.