They believe the absence of police in the town largely contributed to the lawlessness that resulted in the soldier’s death.
A memorial service in Accra to commemorate one year of Major Mahama’s death was complemented with a similar ceremony at Denkyira Obuasi, now New Obuasi.
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Besides a trust fund set up by government to cater for the wife and children, sod was cut for construction of a monument at Burma Camp on the orders of President Akufo-Addo.
There are calls from some quarters for the similar bust at New Obuasi to remind residents of their callous killing of Major Mahama.
However, Chief Linguist, Nana Kwabena Asare, says a police station in the town named after the slain soldier will serve a better purpose than a statue to constantly remind them of a dark day.
“Some say they should build Major Mahama’s statue here. We disagree with that suggestion because it will always remind us of the incident. For us, we don’t want the statue.
READ: I won’t allow another ‘Denkyira-Obuasi’ incident to happen in Nyinahini – DCE
We will always be reminded by the death anytime we see the statue. We will name a police station built to his memory,” he said.
Nana Asare’s position is endorsed by Upper Denkyira West District Chief Executive, Agyemang Asiedu.
“We cannot have anything special than having a security presence in New Obuasi, and for that matter, it will add up to the security presence we have in the whole of Upper Denkyira West District and so, therefore, even if the assembly is having any mind of having any other thing for the people of New Obuasi, we would have first considered the building of a police station,” he said.
Diaso District Police Commander, ASP Osei Adu Agyemang who first investigated the murder of Major Mahama before the case was subsequently transferred to Cape Coast and Accra, believes there is no befitting monument than a police station.
“In fact, there is no police station there [New Obuasi].
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“If there had been a police station there, this incident wouldn’t have occurred because if anything at all, when the message was given to the assemblyman, he would have just walked to the police station…So we seriously need a police station at Denkyira Obuasi.
This is my personal view if we can have any monument for the Denkyira Obuasi town, I think a police station would be the best for the prevention of a further re-occurrence of such an incident.”
Significantly, residents of Denkyira Obuasi were at communal labour on the fateful day of 29th May, 2017 when news of a suspected robber sparked off the action that ended Major Mahama’s life.
A proposed conversion of an abandoned post office into a police station has since stalled following the arrest and prosecution of the assemblymen for the area, William Baah.