A man was yesterday found dead in an 'A' Field Sophia trench from what appeared to be electrocution.

Dead is Clive Anthony Shaffie, 34, of Farmers' Field, Sophia.

The man's sister-in-law Tassie Blake said she received the news of his death at around 7 am yesterday from a woman who lives in the area where his body was found.

Blake said that according to the messenger, her brother-in-law had been found about twenty minutes before, face down in the trench holding onto a wire. She was told that when an onlooker touched the wire, Shaffie's body had spun around onto his side with one shoulder in the air. A law enforcement officer told this newspaper that the palms of Shaffie's hands had been badly burnt.

When Stabroek News visited the scene, a bundle of wires could be seen not far from a Guyana Power and Light (GPL) utility pole, and a resident in the vicinity recalled that GPL had only last week cut some illegal connections. While public installations in the area like the school are electrified, private residences are not yet connected to the grid.

Shaffie's relatives said the man had no particular experience in the electrical field. He had been a miner in the interior, but since he had come out last year he had not gone back. Blake said this was because he had fallen sick, the weather in the interior was bad and he was also awaiting word from the Ministry of Housing and Water which had signalled its intention to relocate all the residents in Shaffie's area.

She said that Shaffie normally would go to the Ministry every Wednesday but he not received any positive word up to the time of his death. The man was a loner, she said, who had no children, never got married and had few friends. He lived on his own, and did odd jobs around Sophia in order to sustain himself.

A Sophia resident, Farouk, who said he was one of Shaffie's friends stated that the man at one time was living with a woman who later took his possessions and left, but that since that time he had been on his own.

Blake recalled that Shaffie would normally visit them in 'B' Field Sophia every evening. He would come to ensure that his nephew and nieces were behaving, she said, and also to collect meals from his mother Margaret who prepared breakfast, lunch and dinner for him.

She said that up to Saturday afternoon she had spoken with Shaffie who was over at their residence for the last time.

Prior to that he had been assisting a resident to get some mud into her yard. His neighbours said he was a decent individual who did honest work for a living. One man who lives south of where Shaffie's body was discovered speculated that the man was "hustling" electricity for himself.

Other residents expressed the view that if Sophia had been supplied with electricity the incident would never have occurred.

Shaffie has left to mourn his parents, two brothers and a sister.