The maternal family of the late President John Evans Atta Mills has said it would support any attempt by the Akufo-Addo-led New Patriotic Party (NPP) government to investigate the circumstances surrounding the death of the late head of state.
Prof. Mills died suddenly on Tuesday, July 24, 2012 when he was preparing to contest for a second term in office. Since then, details about what caused his death are still shrouded in secrecy.
“We won’t mind if the new government probes what actually caused the death of our brother, the President. We don’t mind if they do that so that everything will be clarified,” Ato Harry Brew, an 85-year-old first cousin of the late president, told DAILY GUIDE in an exclusive chat in Accra on Monday.
“If the opinion of the country is that it should be done, then it has to be done,” he said from his Ashongman Estates residence when he took DAILY GUIDE through the family history of the late president.
He said the maternal family of Prof Mills – who was a Tax Law Expert – is called Nkuma-Kyerba Twidan Ebusua of Tantri, Cape Coast.
Mr. Harry Brew’s mother (Emma Dawson-Ahmoah or Nee Emma Dawson Brew) and the late President Mills’ mother (Mercy Dawson-Ahmoah/Nee Mercy Dawson Atta Mills) are sisters from the same mother called Kyereba aka Esi Yaunde or Esi Amoanua (because she was born in Cameroon) from Kotokuraba, Cape Coast.
Mr. Harry Brew, who is the first African Cocoa Insect Pollinator Biologist/Taxonomist, said, “I fully support what Cadman said if the investigation into what killed President Mills was done during the NDC’s tenure, many people would not have believed the outcome.
“I feel once there is a new government we should all, especially the family, get to know the circumstances surrounding his death, if that is what a lot of Ghanaians want.”
He said the NDC administration blocked the family from sending President Mills to the United States for further medical attention because the government officials said the 2012 general election was getting close.
“They said they were going to have election and when they send him to the US it will affect the election and all that. I said but he is a human being and he is my brother; if he is sick and we are taking him, what is their problem?” Mr Harry Brew, who is still a consultant in industrial etymology, disclosed, adding, “It was politicized. I am telling you I told Cadman to take him to the US for medical attention.
“I saw him on Saturday but he was speaking through the nose.”
He debunked rumours that Prof Mills’ body was sent to South Africa for autopsy. “They even said the body was dressed in South Africa. It was all untrue.
“The Lashibi Funeral Home where he was kept belongs to my wife’s sister. It was there the government put my brother’s body. They had removed him from the 37 Military Hospital Morgue. So it was never true that the body was flown to South Africa,” he cleared the air.
When asked whether the government disclosed any autopsy results to him as family head, Mr Ato Harry Brew asked rhetorically, “Would they even do that?
Cape Coast/Otuam Debate
Taking DAILY GUIDE through volumes of documents, including archival images dating back to the 1890s, he slammed all those who are claiming that President Mills came from Ekumfi Otuam in the Central Region.
“Of course, we are matrilineal. We are not from Ekumfi Otuam. It was his father who came from Otuam. We are from Kotokuraba, Cape Coast,” he underscored.
He said it was President Mills’ father called John Evans Atta Mills Senior who hailed from Otuam; and once Fantes practise matrilineal inheritance, the family could not be said to be coming from that town.
“If you want gains you can formulate something and that has misfired so long as I am alive,” he stressed, adding, “The Otuam people cannot lay claim to President Mills. We are matrilineal and we are Akans and therefore, nobody can use a false tongue to change and hang anything on our necks. These things must cease before the fifth anniversary comes.”
Twin Myth
Mr. Harry Brew also said that President Mills was never a twin but was rather named after his paternal grandfather called Edward Atta Mills.
“Prof. Mills was named after his paternal grandfather called Edward Atta Mills and the Fantes called him Mbir Atta. The name was however, Anglicised to Atta Mills,” he explained.
Some have strongly claimed that his twin brother is Cadman Mills, but the family head said that cannot also be true.
“Prof was born in 1944 and Cadman was born in 1946 so how can they be twins?” Mr Brew wondered.