According to eyewitnesses, the tragic incident occurred on Friday, June 16, 2012 around midnight local time when the home of the overseer of the Cocopa Camp # 2 was struck by lightning, immediately killing him and three of his children.
One of the nurses of Cocopa clinic told the Daily Observer that the lightning must have struck repeatedly to have killed the four victims because they were in three different rooms of the house.
“When the first lightning struck, it entered the first room where one of the victims was sleeping and kill her instantly, and then it entered another room where the overseer was and killed him along with two other children,” she added.
Those killed include Peter Dorpah, father and overseer of camp two, T-girl Dorpah, Melvin Dorpah and Teewon Dorpah.
All of them were pronounced death upon arrival at the Ganta United Methodist Hospital.
The late Peter Dorpah was the husband of two wives. One of the wives who was with him on the night of the incident was badly injured with burn wound on her back.
The wounded woman was also believed to have lost two of her children in the incident while her mate lost one.
This is not the first time that lightning has killed persons in the area. On the 4th of May 2011 three market women including an 8 months old pregnant woman were mysteriously killed by lightening during the evening hours as they were packing their good to return home.
The recent deaths sent shockwaves among the citizens and workers of the concessional area stirring mix opinions, with some attributing the mysterious deaths of the victims to witchcraft.
