Two students of the Wa Campus of the University for Development Studies (UDS), Mohammed Mustapha Bunbaaz and Lawrence Afriyie, Level 100 diploma and degree students respectively, have drowned in a swimming pool at the Mole Motel at the Mole National Park in the Northern Region.

The two were part of a contingent of students who travelled to the park to have fun as part of their Independence Day celebrations.

A student of the university told the Daily Graphic the two were found unconscious in the pool when they (the students) were about to leave the park and return to Wa but they were declared dead after they had been rushed to the Damongo Hospital.

The eyewitness said when the students embarked on the journey and got to the park at about 1 p.m. on Saturday, they decided to eat their food first till about 3 p.m. when they were informed by the guards at the park that it was time for them to go for a walk round the park.

He said by then, many of the students and other visitors were swimming in a pool at the Mole Motel.

The witness said when the students were told about the safari walk, some of them decided to go with the guards, while others, including the deceased, continued swimming.

He said just as they were about to leave the park, after the walk and all the excitement, to their campus in Wa, some students raised alarm that there was somebody in the pool.

He said when they rushed back to the pool side, they found one of the deceased students unconscious in the pool so they pulled him out and with the help of some foreign tourists tried to resuscitate him. The informant added that they managed to get an ambulance from the Damongo Hospital to convey the victim to the hospital.

When they thought they could leave the place, the eyewitness said, some students again prompted their colleagues that there still was another body beneath the water.

He said when they rushed back to the pool side, the second alarm turned out to be true as another unconscious student was brought out of the swimming pool.

He said he was also rushed to the hospital in a taxi but was pronounced dead on arrival.


Daily Graphic/Ghana