One of the children of a couple found dead in their home at Abuakwa Maakro in the Ashanti Region has opened up about their starvation.
According to the boy, they decided to starve themselves because their parents told them “food was a curse”.
Samuel Jackson and his wife Ernestina Jackson were found dead in their room on July 27, 2022, when police entered their rented apartment.
Their two sons were also found in an unconscious state and were rushed to the Abuakwa Polyclinic.
According to Accra–based Citi News, the two children had regained consciousness and were in stable condition.
However, the eldest son appeared to be highly traumatized and could not speak properly.
Therefore, the younger son who spoke to Citi News disclosed that they refused to eat for religious reasons.
“We were not eating because our parents said food was a curse. That’s because they were worried over something. Now we know it. If you want to put the curse out of the food, you have to first pray and then eat. Our parents were not eating too.”
The child further explained that they run out of food for a period of time in the house, but were locked inside their apartment.
“We run out of food for many days, and we became weak. The police came to our house and took us to the hospital. They took my mum and dad to the other hospital and brought me and my brother here”.
According to the medical superintendent of the Abuakwa Polyclinic, Dr. Mensah Manye, when the two children, who are about 11 and 13 years respectively brought to the facility, they were dehydrated and very weak.
“The police brought the two children here, who were both unconscious. The police narrated to me that the two children were being locked in their room with their parents for some months now. The two children were lying down helpless, unconscious, so they rushed them to the hospital.
“When they came, the assessment shows they were severely dehydrated. They had grown very lean. It was only their bony prominence that was showing. That shows the extent of weight loss they’ve gone through. They could not talk or walk. They couldn’t do anything. They lost a lot of fluid. We worked to resuscitate them,” he revealed.
Meanwhile, the Ghana Psychological Association (GPA) says it will offer free psycho-social services to the children.
The Association said it was touched by the plight of the children after monitoring the story on JoyNews.
The bodies of Mr and Mrs. Jackson, suspected to have died several weeks in their 2-bedroom apartment, were retrieved by the Abuakwa Police after they broke into their home.
READ ALSO: