President Akufo-Addo has refuted claims that the former President John Atta Mills’ tomb has been meddled with.
Speaking at the commissioning of the rehabilitated Asomdwe Park and the 10th Anniversary of the death of the Atta Mills on Sunday, July 24, the President said it is rather unfortunate such claims are made and need to be ignored.
“There have been unfortunate accusations levelled by some persons against Government about the supposed desecration of the tomb of the late President in the process of rehabilitating the Park.”
“Nothing could be farther from the truth, and it is good to note that these false, malicious statements have been firmly dispelled and debunked by the Coastal Development Authority, through the agency of its CEO, Mr. Jerry Ahmed Schaib, in a public statement under his hand,” he added.
This follows the accusations levelled up against the government by the brother of the former President, Samuel Atta Mills, who claimed the government had permitted the Atta Mills Institute to tamper with the grave of the late statesman.
“A group calling itself Atta Mills Institute that the family does not recognize and Coastal Development Authority have gone to break this grave of President Evans Atta Mills…why would you go and touch somebody’s grave without informing the family? … Who has the body now? That is the question I want to ask Ghanaians,” he lamented.
“This is an insult to the family, this is an insult to we the Akans, this is an insult to the nation. The government allows an NGO and Coastal Development Authority to run Asomdwe Park. Why don’t we send another NGO to go and run Kwame Nkrumah Mausoleum…the government has to provide the body of President John Evans Atta Mills, we want to find out where the body is…who in this government is authorising this nonsense?” he questioned.
However, the Coastal Development Authority has refuted these accusations.
Prof. John Atta Mills died on July 24, 2012, at the 37 Military Hospital in Accra, days after his 68th birthday. Though the cause of death was not immediately released, he suffered from throat cancer.
However, Mills’ brother, Dr. Cadman Mills later disclosed during the graveside service that he had died from complications of a massive hemorrhagic stroke resulting from a brain aneurysm.
