3 DIE AFTER GHANA, NIGERIA DUEL One in Accra, 2 in Tamale (PAGE 3 LEAD)

05/02/2008
THE spontaneous jubilation that characterised the 2-1 victory of the Ghana Black Stars over Nigeria yesterday resulted in the death of three people in Accra and Tamale.
In Accra, Mary Mensah reports that apart from the death of a 11-year-old pupil of the Kotobabi 5 Primary School, Nasiru Salifu, a man riding a motorbike through jubilant supporters was nearly lynched when he knocked a middle-aged man during the celebration at Ayikuma near Dodowa in the Greater Accra Region.
Although the motor cyclist escaped, his motorbike was burnt while the middle-aged man whose name was not immediately known was admitted to the 37 Military Hospital.
In Tamale, Hassan Inusah, a driver with the Ghana Fire Service, and a 14-year-old Class Five pupil, Issahq Mohammed, died through separate motor accidents, reports Zakaria Alhassan.
Inusah died when he crashed his motorbike into a colleague’s while Mohammed fell off a moving vehicle and was run over by the driver.
The acting Director of Police Public Affairs Directorate, DSP Kwesi Ofori, told the Daily Graphic in Accra that Salifu joined others in the celebration, and they were dancing when a bus with registration number GS 2681 Y whose driver was also celebrating the victory knocked Salifu at the Abavana Junction and absconded.
He said the driver was still at large and the police had mounted a search for his arrest.
The acting director reiterated his appeal to members of the public to be circumspect during celebrations, adding that any celebration should be within the confines of the law.
He said the burning of lorry tyres on roads, illegal roadblocks which caused traffic jams on a number of roads within the metropolis and people who went naked publicly were unlawful.
DSP Ofori indicated that the way and manner some drivers also sped and drove carelessly on the roads, endangering the lives of pedestrians and other road users, was uncalled for.
In the Tamale incident, eyewitnesses told the Daily Graphic that the driver, whose name was not given, joined in the celebration with Mohammed and others in the bucket of a pick-up, singing and dancing, reports Zakaria Alhassan.
In the process of the celebration, Mohammed fell off the vehicle as the driver began his antics of intermittently turning the vehicle around. He was run over by the vehicle and died instantly.
A number of people who were also involved in minor accidents received various degree of injuries as they rode their motorbikes and vehicles dangerously on the roads to the dismay of onlookers.
Some children who joined in the respective receptions in Tamale could not also trace their homes and had to be taken to some radio stations for announcements to be effected for their guardians to go for them.
In spite of these occurrences, some of the jubilant funs celebrated Ghana’s victory deep into the night.