Shortly after 10 am on Saturday May 14, 2014, the population of Ngangue was driven into a frenzy.

The death of one of theirs had just been announced. But what caused the commotion was not the death announcement in itself, but the fact that they had seen the victim barely 10 minutes before.

First-hand reports hold that the young man whose name CT got as “Meridien” was looking for an axe. Unable to get one from the neighbours, he went back to his home where he lives with his blind-widowed mother and two children. A few minutes later, one of the tenants saw him lying on the floor and upon checking, discovered he had been struck by electricity.

Immediately, an alarm was raised which drew benevolent persons to the site. When they rushed him to a nearby hospital, he was claimed dead and the family took the remains to the mortuary. In the midst of shouting and wailing, the “deceased’s” phone rang at home and when one of the mourners picked it up, they were told he was not dead.

Rather that the mortuary attendant at the Laquintinie hospital had requested for a last check-up during which he had been reanimated. This restored the joy of the population, but for a short while for the cold hand of death struck its chord when news came in the evening that “Meridien” was “finally” dead.