“She wanted to be a doctor” – Father of student who allegedly committed suicide
She wanted to be a doctor to wear a white coat with a stethoscope around her neck.
But the last thing on her neck was a rope that sucked the life out of her feeble body.
This has become the sudden reality of parents of the 15-year-old student who allegedly committed suicide at Miracle Preparatory and Junior High School at Sunyani in the Bono Region.
However, the father of the final year student who was seen hanging from the ceiling of the school’s dining hall suspects foul play.
After meeting with the Sunyani Municipal Police, Williams Kyere, father of the deceased Leticia Kyere Pinaman, said his daughter’s death was questionable.
“I suspect foul play because my daughter cannot die like that. She doesn’t have any problem for her to just die. I have four daughters at different levels,” he said in near tears. “She wanted to be a doctor, so I don’t understand why they said my daughter was having problems that made her take her life. It’s neither here nor there”.
“My daughter is the calm and reserved type. She doesn’t lack anything and I am always in touch with her through one of her teacher’s mobile phone,” he added.
Mr Kyere said he received news of his daughter’s death from his wife at about 8:00 pm on Monday, May 17.
“I had to drive through to the school. When I got there, they told me the place was cordoned off because they wanted the police to arrive. So, I drove back to the police station, and the officers dispatched a pathologist,” he told Citi FM in an interview monitored by theghanareport.com.
The girl’s mother believes somebody might have killed her daughter, and the body hanged at the school’s dining hall to suggest suicide.
According to her, no stool or urine was found on the body of the deceased. Additionally, the girl’s tongue was intact, so she does not accept that it was suicide.
It is not immediately known what led to the incident, but it happened while the students were at the church auditorium for bible studies.
Pinaman is said to have left a suicide note on a table, which supposedly stated: “I am not happy, this world is full of sorrow and pain, I can’t live anymore and I want to die”.
The Sunyani Municipal police have since deposited the body at the Sunyani Regional Hospital morgue.
Investigations are ongoing to unravel the circumstances that led to her death.
Suicide records
The WHO has shown that a person dies every 40 seconds by suicide worldwide, with 25 more people attempting suicide.
This puts the data of persons dying averagely per year to suicide at approximately 800,000.
Director-General at the Mental Health Authority, Dr Kwasi Osei, stated in 2019 that an NGO pegged suicide deaths in Ghana at 1,500 deaths per annum.
Dr Osei has been championing the allocation of more funds to deal with mental health in Ghana. He also highlighted the need to introduce mental health levy.
He is also advocating the approval of a mental health levy to cater for the high cost of treatment.