The bodies of a husband and wife – both military officers – are among the seven retrieved from flood waters by the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO), after heavy rains Sunday.

S/Sgt Arthur Jabez, 45 and his wife WO Sarah Kuadzi, 40 were travelling in a military pick up from a funeral in Tema when their vehicle got caught in the flood waters at a suburb along the motorway known as Adjei-Kojo.

The incident occurred at the centre of the motorway where a gaping hole expanses into a culvert that transfers water from the northern parts of the Tema to its south-western part.

Joy News’ Kojo Yankson who has been in the area said, the dangerous spot is well known to people who are familiar with the stretch.

For fresh users of the stretch, however, the spot could be easily missed especially when it has rained and water has covered the surface of the motorway making the edges undetectable.

In Sunday’s incident, Kojo gathered that the military vehicle driver, as a result of the rains could not see the edges of the motorway and just as he came to the culvert, skidded off the road causing the pickup to plunge into the flowing flood waters below.

According to eyewitnesses, there were four adults – the couple and two others including a baby - in the cabin of the pickup. The bucket of the pick-up also had passengers.

In the back seat were Alice and Georgina Arhin, both 35. Georgina was travelling with the 11-month-old baby who also died when the pickup plunged into flood waters.

Although all four adults have been found, the body of the baby has yet to be recovered.

Passengers in the bucket of the vehicle were, however, able to swim to safety.

NADMO said the bodies of three other people who were swept away by the flood waters have been retrieved.

These deaths bring to 12, the total number of lives lost as a result of floods in Accra in just a week. Similar downpour on April 7, also claimed five lives.

NADMO is still searching for the bodies of a six-year-old boy and an adult male who were swept away by flood waters at Sakaman and Ablekuma, respectively. The bodies of man who was pushed into the Odaw River around the Kwame Nkrumah Interchange and that of the 11-month old baby is also being searched for.

Meanwhile, government said it has allocated ¢197 million for the desilting choked drains and other drainage works in the country. 

Addressing the press in a joint interaction between her Ministry and the Greater Accra Metropolitan Water and Sanitation Projects, Cecelia Dapaah said the contract for the works has already been awarded by the Ministry of Works and Housing.