We starved because our parents said food was a curse – Son of couple found dead in their home

One of the children of a couple found dead in their home at Abuakwa Maakro in the Ashanti Region has revealed that they “starved” themselves because their parents told them that “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.

When Citi News visited the Abuakwa Polyclinic, the two children were in stable condition.

The oldest son appeared to be highly traumatized and could not speak properly.

The Medical Superintendent of the Abuakwa Polyclinic, Dr. Mensah Manye told Citi News the health professionals at the facility were taking the children through physiotherapy and psychotherapy to ensure they gain full fitness.

The younger son who spoke to Citi News did not know the current state of their parents.

He however 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”.

He 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 12 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 (my team and I) worked to resuscitate them”.

Dr. Mensah Manye says their observation shows that the woman may have died about a month ago, while the man may have died about two weeks ago.

“Apparently, the mother died and also the father died. From the police’s observation when they broke into the room, they saw that the mother was decomposing. The husband also died on a water closet in a washroom. It appears the woman died about a month ago, while the man died about two or three weeks ago”.

Dr. Manye added that there were ice packs on the body of the woman to supposedly preserve the body.

Family members of Ernestina Jackson who heard the news of her passing told Citi News that they were shocked as they did not know she and her family were in Ghana all this while.

“The two kids on admission at the Abuakwa Polyclinic are our grandchildren. Their mother was my niece. She had her traditional wedding with her husband at Bohyen. The family members of the man are in Tema. That was where they did the white wedding. They then travelled to the Netherlands after the marriage, so we lost contact at a point. They used to come to Ghana once a while. Had it not been for this incident, we wouldn’t have known that they were in Ghana. We came here after we heard the news on the radio,” Agyei Manu, a relative of Ernestina Jackson, stated in an interview with Citi News.

The landlady of the couple in an interview with Citi News expressed shock following the incident.

She said, although the Jackson family hardly socializes with others in the neighbourhood, the husband and wife were lovely.

“They are not the only family living in our house. After renting out the room to them, they have not at any point shown that they are violent. Their co-tenants can even attest to the fact that they are very lovely. They, however, hardly socialize with people within this area. They decide to greet people as and when they deem fit. I’m really living in fear. I’m shocked because I knew them”.

Source: newsghana.com.gh