Disaster struck the Barekese community in the Atwima Nwabiagya District of Ashanti around 5:00 pm last Sunday, when a 19-year-old man who had gained admission to read Political Science at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) got drowned in the Barekese Dam.

The deceased, described as exceptionally brilliant, and identified as Gideon Nana Yaw, was said to have gone to the dam with friends as part of his birthday celebration to take pictures for that memorable occasion.

As part of the celebration, he was alleged to have boarded a canoe and directed his friends to use his mobile phone to take his pictures while paddling the canoe in the dam, but the waves allegedly pushed the canoe into deep water, hit a pole and capsized, throwing him into the dam.

The incident was said to have thrown the entire Barekese community into a state of mourning as the people wept uncontrollably, especially as efforts to retrieve his body from the dam proved futile.

Briefing the Daily Graphic about the incident, Station Officer Dominic Kumi from the Chirapatre Fire Station said they had a distress call around 6 p.m. last Sunday,that the deceased was drowning in the Barekese Dam.

He said when fire servi­ce personnel rushed to the scene, they found some divers and sympathisers striving to locate the body without success. He said because it was getting dark, they used headlights and other gadgets from the Fire Engine to manoeuvre the dam, hoping to locate the body of the deceased, but for almost five hours, they could neither locate him nor retrieve his body.

“We spent about five hours in the dam, combing everywhere but could not locate him, so we finally left the place around 11 p.m.”

According to Mr Kumi, initial investigations revealed that the deceased and his friends went to the dam site around 5 p.m. last Sunday, to  socialise, and it was while they were hovering around that the deceased decided to take pictures in the dam.