Mpraeso JHS Student Death: 14-Year-Old JHS Student Keziah Mirekua Dies After Setting Herself Ablaze.

A tragedy that has left residents of the Mpraeso Amanfrom community in Kwahu West Municipality of Eastern Region of Ghana unsettled with shock has occurred in the region. A 14-year-oldJunior High School (JHS) student, Keziah Mirekua, was reportedly involved in an incident and sustained serious injuries as she set herself alight at one of the area’s schools’ park.

After the self-immolation act, the final-year basic school pupil was rushed to the nearest hospital for treatment as her condition was described as critical before she died later. Her passing away has created great shock in the community as people are still trying to understand the major trigger for the heart-wrenching incident that led to the 14-year-old’s death.

As the community scrambles to seek reasons for the incident, contradicting information from Keziah’s family member has created more questions than answers. Christiana Nkansah, Keziah’s grandmother, in her interview with the media hinted that the girl had confided in them of facing problems linked to pregnancy.

“The child told us that the boyfriend did not want her, and she was stressed about the situation,” Mrs. Nkansah said. “Her grandmother added: ‘I thought she was sick, but the child told me while I was holding her hand on the bed that she was not sick, that he (her boyfriend) did not want her to get pregnant and that she was stressed about it.’” However, her mother and sister have contradicted the news about the negative pregnancy claims.

Keziah’s mother and sister who were present at the event told the media that the rumors around the girl’s womb were not in any way connected to what happened on that fateful day. “We know that the child was having a boyfriend. He wasn’t a bad boy. But we never thought that she was pregnant,” Keziah’s sister said. “What we think is that there must be something else that triggered this.”

In the wake of the incident, residents in various parts of the country have expressed concern that such stories are becoming common, and the authorities usually intervene to help distressed teenagers in similar situations. “In many countries, a lot of teens are prone to these behaviors when they cannot control their relationship situations. For example, recently, in BBC Pidgin, we had a story of a pregnant tertiary student involved in a fatal fire incident with her boyfriend,” one resident remarked.

Meanwhile, the family of the deceased has asked for authorities’ assistance to unravel the incident’s triggering factors. Family members have called for the involvement of police as they are determined to know what happened to the girl to rest their souls. The police are yet to discover the trigger and cause of the fire that sparked the incident. Furthermore, they are still investigating whether the girl was harassed or neglected before the incident and if any other party bears responsibility for the girl’s death.