The remains of the incarcerated boss of the Exopa Modelling Agency, Ibrahim Sima, were yesterday laid to rest, in line with Islamic custom.
Scores of Muslims from Tema, where the late model grew up, thronged the Tema Community 9 cemetery about 3:30 p.m. to bid farewell to a man many youth in the Tema metropolis described as a philanthropist.
Associates of the deceased and scores of models and student models from Sima’s agency were also present.
Family members wailed uncontrollably as the body, wrapped in a white calico, was conveyed to the grave side. A Muslim cleric from the Nima Central Mosque, Sheikh Saeed Dahaman, who performed the burial rites, challenged Muslim youth not to be swayed by material things. Hard work, he emphasised, paid. “While we all testify about how good Sima was, there’s the need to uphold good virtues and shun evil tendencies,” he counselled. No foul play The Head of the late model trainer’s family, Alhaji Mohammed Mola, discounted claims that the deceased had passed on as a result of medical negligence. The deceased’s son, Abu Ibrahim, had blamed medical staff of the Police Hospital for failing to give appropriate care to his father. “We believe it was his appointed time to join his Maker,” Alhaji Mola stressed
Sima died last Thursday night at the Police Hospital in Accra where he was being treated after he had complained of bodily pains resulting from playing a football match at the Nsawam Prison last Wednesday. During the match, he clashed with the goalkeeper of the opposing side but kept playing until the end. He was taken to the Nsawam Prison Infirmary, from where he was referred to the Nsawam Government Hospital and later transferred to the Police Hospital in Accra where he died. Alhaji Mola urged the public to desist from attempts to draw the family into the public debate on what might have occasioned Sima’s death. Skimpy clothes parade The burial ground was, meanwhile, turned into a mini fashion parade, which saw female models in skimpy black attire with matching high heels. While some were in a sombre mood, others happily grouped and discussed events that had led to the rise and fall of a man credited to have revolutionised Ghana’s fashion industry. Sima was imprisoned in 2007 after being convicted for concealing narcotic drugs in a tuber of yam being exported to Germany.
