GAF staff writes to President over wife's death

I write you this letter as a tax-paying and law-abiding citizen of this country.

Sir, the reason for writing is of grave importance to me, my children, in-laws, siblings and other family members.

On Saturday, March 2, 2019, I had the usual morning chat with my wife by phone (we live apart because of our work schedules).

We ended our call with a promise to talk later in the day because my wife was getting ready to leave for work.

The next time I called my wife’s phone at 11.43 a.m, a voice which sounded not familiar to me informed me that my wife, Mrs Ruffina Selalinam Ganyo-Dekpey Damalie, had collapsed and had been rushed to the Aflao Government Hospital.

You can imagine my shock as my wife worked as a Customs Officer at the Aflao boarder, while I work in Accra.

In my state of shock and confusion, I sought permission from my superiors and made my way to Aflao to find out what truly happened.

Before then, my brother-in-law had taken steps to get some answers but was unsuccessful.

When I arrived, I met the lifeless body of my beloved wife in a prone position on the hospital bed without any life support equipment.

We proceeded to the Aflao command of the Customs Division to find out what truly happened because the stories leading to my wife’s death kept changing.

The story had it that my wife reported for work in her usual cheerful mood but later collapsed while visiting the ladies washroom.

When she was found, her colleagues handed her over to two “goro boys” to send her to the hospital.

This story was confirmed by the two “goro boys”.

According to the doctor’s report, my wife was brought in dead from the Customs office.

My wife’s colleagues had cars parked in their yard but none offered nor used any of those cars or even cared to take her to the hospital.

Would you believe that we had to call the Customs Office to inform them that their colleague they sent in a taxi to the hospital had passed on?

No Customs officer cared to follow up.

When we arrived and heard the story, we sought audience with the sector commander.

She was not at post so we met the second-in-command.

We respectfully requested to be shown where my wife collapsed but this request was turned down. We further asked to see the first person who found my wife so we could thank the person for at least making an effort.

That request was again shot down with the excuse that the commander was not at post.

We later met the sector commander but we were not successful in our earlier requests.

What is troubling my mind are the contradictions in the information gathered from my wife’s immediate bosses that she did not collapse at the washroom but rather collapsed when she leaned against a wall and the refusal of the Customs command at Aflao to let me see where my wife allegedly collapsed.

This is making me suspect there is more to my wife’s death than I know.

I respectfully will plead with you to instruct the Customs officers at the border at Aflao to help me find answers to the following mind-boggling questions:

1. When did my wife report to work?

2. What were activities that morning?

3. When did she “allegedly” collapse and who saw her first?

4. Was the washroom where she allegedly collapsed broken into?

5. Why was she not accompanied to the hospital by uniformed personnel but “goro boys”?

6. Why was she transported in a hired taxi instead of Customs Division vehicles? I have many more but I will leave them here for now.

Ruffina was a young lady who was more than a wife; she was my mother, grandmother, father, etc.

She was my everything. She was a family person.

The death is a huge blow to everyone.

I need closure as a husband.

The children need closure.

My mother-in-law needs closure and the family needs closure but the unusual behaviour of the Aflao Customs command is not giving us that closure.

Counting on you,

Your citizen
Staff Sergeant Eric Ganyo-Dekpey
Ghana Armed Forces.