FORMER ASSEMBLY MEMBER ELECTROCUTED (PAGE 18, JUNE 25, 2010)

THE body of a former Assembly Member of Obakatse Electoral Area at Ashaiman Roman Down, Billy Tsinasi, 57, has been retrieved from the floods which has ravaged the Tema Municipal Area since Sunday.
family members who found the body were at the Ashaiman Police Station where they had conveyed it for documentation when the Daily Graphic got there.
They reported that Tsinasi, who was their breadwinner appeared to have been electrocuted when he attempted to walk through the flooded area to inspect his land located in the electoral area.
The Ashaiman Police Commander, Superintendent Peter Kobina, said the official figure of bodies retrieved in Ashaiman was 13 and efforts were being made to retrieve more missing bodies.
He said out of the 13 bodies, nine had been buried in line with the dictates of their muslim religion, but the remaining ones were at the morgue of the Tema General Hospital.
Superintendent Kobina told the Assembly Member for Obakatse Electoral Area, Mr Thomas Adongo, that most of the deaths occurred at the Roman Down area.
He said one other person had been reported missing in the area and a search party was on the lookout for a 10-year old girl Dzigbodi whose body was washed away in the big drain which flows into the Gbemi River.
The Chairman of the Alternative Dispute Resolution Centre, Mr Gabriel Atsu, said a 41-year-old man, Kofi Adatsi, who attempted to assist a victim also got drowned. He said the body had been deposited at the Tema morgue.
Presently Ashaiman is in a mess while people continue to salvage few things that they could lay their hands on.
More than 2,000 people in Ashaiman have been rendered homeless.
Anger is mounting among residents because of the Assembly’s decision to remove buildings located on low-lying grounds reserved for farming and those located close to storm drains in order to save life and property.
The areas, according to the concerned people, include the Ashaiman Roman Down agricultural lands and the dam site at Jericho, managed by the Irrigation Development Authority(IDA), which is under threat because of encroachment.
Huge permanent structures have been built at the Ashaiman Roman Down farm area, where farmers there have cultivated crops such as okro, tomatoes, corn and pepper and also reared animals like ducks, grasscutters and fowls.
The irrigation dam site where rice is cultivated in addition to crops and buildings were also flooded.
It was discovered that people occupying those buildings had vacated the houses which were alleged to have been constructed illegally.