2 bodies retrieved after rituals

TWO OUT of the 5 missing people, who got drowned in the Offin River after a canoe capsized on Friday, have finally been retrieved from the river after 48 hours of search.

According to reports, the traditional leaders in New Achiase, in the Atwima Mponua District, in the Ashanti Region, where the accident occurred, had to pour libation before two bodies were found.

Special swimmers that were hired by the authorities in the farming community to search for the bodies, had failed to retrieve the bodies after 24 hours of search so the traditional leaders were called to perform some rituals.

Eye witnesses said the traditional leaders poured bottles of schnapps into the river that overflown its banks due to recent heavy downpour to pacify the gods on Saturday. The bodies were found on Sunday.

People that believe in superstition maintained that the performance of the rituals, especially the pouring of libation into the river, contributed to the discovery of the two bodies on Sunday afternoon.

The canoe, THE NEW PUBLISHER has been reliably informed, was carrying about nine males from New Achiase to a different village in the area on Friday when it suddenly capsized.

Four of the people on board are said to have managed to swim from the river to the shore and saved their lives in the process, but the remaining five could not swim so they got drowned in the river.

The cause of the accident was not immediately disclosed to the paper but eye witnesses are not ruling out human error, as they believe the canoe was overloaded during the time of the incident.

Search for the three remaining missing bodies were still ongoing when the report was filed on Sunday evening.