It has been 10 years since former President Mills passed away but the mystery surrounding his death just won’t go away.
Depressingly, there have been growing calls for the state to investigate Mills’ death, and the latest to join in the public outcry for the coroner’s inquest is no less a person than his former Director of Communications, Samuel Koku Anyidoho.
Fixing The Country Movement fully endorsed the call by Koku Anyidoho and many other well meaning Ghanaians to have an inquest into Prof Mills’ death.
We support an urgent action for a Public Inquiry/investigations to be carried out by an independent commission to clarify the cause of death of former president John Evans Atta Mills.
Our support for this call is premised on the fact that the inquest will provide a clear account of events and run-up to the circumstances leading to the demise of the former president.
More pertinently, there have been dozens of claims as to the cause of death, and the conditions of systemic medical negligence, upper-level complicity and solitary confinement that President Mills was subjected to. Some have even accused Mahama directly of allegedly having a hand in president Mills’ death.
These claims are actually supported by many unanswered questions, and it has become more of a national security matter.
In actual fact, former President Mahama himself is on record to have petitioned the Director-General of the Criminal Investigations Department of the Police Service over claims by one Abronye DC to the effect that he, Mahama had a hand in late President Mills’ death.
The police hierarchy, we are told actually launched full scale investigations into Mahama’s complaints. But we’re not sure of the outcome of the investigations.
Whereas we do not doubt the competence of our investigative authorities to get to the bottom of this worrying issue, we respectfully submit and appeal to the Attorney General, and the President to use his Executive powers under Article 278 to take immediate action in instituting a Commission of inquiry to look into this long, unwinding and unending allegations of complicity of the state in the death of president Mills.
Section 2(3) of the Coroners Act, 1960 clearly states that “The person in charge of a hospital in which a person has died an unnatural death shall forthwith give notice of the death to the coroner for the district.
We’re fully aware that there was no coroner’s inquest in the matter under scrutiny. Indeed, we believe the inquest can set the record straight about what happened, why, and who bears responsibility for Mills’ demise.
The police and the state for that must not allow the fealty and the cowardice of the powerful people around the then president not to derail this clarion call and leave our country in perpetual worry.
Again, the conjecture that these matters are better left to the family to deal with, and that the departed must be allowed to rest peacefully underscores the shield of vagueness and the normative concealment of probative facts which gloss over the depth of rot in such a national security matter.
We therefore, request the immediate intervention of the state to ensure a bipartisan inquisitorial process is activated in a prompt and impartial manner just so we can all allow the soul of President Mills to rest peacefully.
It is our believe that a further investigative scrutiny and determination will ensure that the country become aware of the outcome of the Coroner’s Inquest, and the circumstances surrounding the death of Prof Mills.
Signed:
Ernest Kofi Owusu Bempah (Convener-Fixing The Country Movement)