Mills' family wants DNA test over hometown

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Category: Special Reports

Created on Thursday, 02 August 2012 00:00

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Mills' family wants DNA test over hometown

{sidebar id=10 align=right}Abusuapanin Ato Harry Brew of the Nkumakyereba family of the late President John Evans Atta Mills, has demanded a DNA test on the mortal remains of the fallen Ghanaian leader, to determine whether or not he hails from Ekumfi Otuam.

Apart from the confusion over whether the late former President should be buried in Accra or his hometown, the family is also split over his original hometown.

While the Nkumakyereba family in Cape Coast is demanding that the body of the late president be brought to Cape Coast, another faction at Ekumfi Otuam is saying the former leader is from Otuam.

Abusuapanin Ato Harry Brew said on Asempa FM’s Ekosii Sen on Thursday that the late President Mills’ mother hailed from Nkumakyereba in Cape Coast and therefore he must be buried there.

He added that, the family of Nkumakyereba practise the matrilineal system of inheritance and therefore does not have any relationship with the Otuam family, so far as the funeral arrangements of the late President is concerned.

Meanwhile the Otuam faction has threatened to place an injunction on the late President’s burial if government failed to involve them in the planning of the funeral arrangements.

But Abusuapanyin Ato Harry Brew told host of Ekosii Sen Kojo Asare Baffour Acheampong that they support any decision that the government and the Funeral Committee will take, concerning the funeral arrangements.

He denied earlier reports suggesting that government has allegedly agreed to hand over the body of the late President the family after an initial burial by the State.

From: Afia Amankwaah-Tamakloe Asempa Fm

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Mills Family Angry With NDC Government

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Category: Special Reports

Created on Wednesday, 01 August 2012 00:00

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Mills Family Angry With NDC Government

The family of President Evans Atta Mills is against the government’s decision to bury the departed president without consulting the family in all the funeral preparations.

The funeral planning committee is headed by Kofi Totobi Quakyi, a former National Security Minister.

Kojo Ampiah, the head of the Odomna family of Otuam, where the late president hailed from, told DAILY GUIDE that President Mills’s family was virtually ignored in the whole process.

For instance, he complained that the date for the funeral was unilaterally picked without due consultation with the family. According to the peeved family head, the late president belonged to a family and whatever the state was doing, it needed to seek the family’s consent.

{sidebar id=10 align=right}The government’s funeral planning committee has chosen August 8 to 10 for the final funeral rites of the deceased president.

However, President Mills’s family members had insisted they would not accept the date set for the funeral, except detailed consultations were done.

“We will meet the parliamentarians at Parliament House on Thursday and that will determine whether we have to postpone the date or not,” he told DAILY GUIDE yesterday.

On Tuesday, another family head, Nana Ankomah Ogya-Boafo VIII, Queen of Gyinankomah, confirmed the anger and bile running through the late president’s family. She was interviewed on an Accra-based radio station, Okay FM.

According to her, most of the consultations done by the Totobi Quakyi-led committee were done with late President Mills’s in-laws in Cape Coast instead of those in Ekumfi-Otuam where the kinsmen live.

The queen complained about the virtual sidestepping of the family in all the arrangements. She said they did not know how major decisions for the funeral were arrived at, including the dates and venues for both the celebration and the burial.

DAILY GUIDE gathered that the family members, led by the queen, last week met the Deputy Chief of Staff, Alex Segbefia, where they unequivocally stated their reservations.

Mr. Segbefia is said to have agreed to convene a meeting between the family and the funeral committee at the Castle to iron out the rough edges.

The meeting was scheduled for yesterday Tuesday, July 31. This is the very day that the one-week memorial cerebration for the departed president was held.

Nana Ankomah Ogya-Boafo poured out her angst as she described the way the planning was being handled; a taboo, she claimed.

Speaking Fanti, she stated, “He [President Mills] is a royal, his father is a royal, yet the most painful aspect of the funeral arrangement is that he is going to be buried like someone who died through an accident or someone who has committed suicide.”

“This is not right, why is the arrangement being made as though he is a mere goat?” she asked

Dr. Obiri Yeboah, a political scientist, agreed that the hasty arrangement was not proper.

“You see, in our tradition, if you bury prominent people as such, it is said that you have buried [them] like a fowl. You see that because they [planning committee] are in a hurry, they have a conflict? If they had planned very well, they would have done a lot of consultation. You want to bury him; you have not even consulted people in the town. They have not consulted the traditional council of the Gas,” he was quoted to have said on Multi TV on Monday.

Earlier, some members of the late president’s family had threatened to seek an injunction on the funeral. Nana Kwame Taylor, a nephew of President Mills and one of the chiefs at Ekumfi, is said to have confirmed this move to Joy FM.

They alleged that their tradition had been broken with impunity and they would not entertain it.

Since the unceremonious death of incumbent President Atta Mills on July 24, 2012, the country has seen some confusion and the planning committee is not spared its fair share of it.

Initial disagreements occurred on the choice of location for the final resting place of the dead president. A heated tussle has ensued between the government’s planning committee and the extended family of the late president.

However, the utmost consideration that is determining the state of affairs around the once-in-a-lifetime state function is the political climate in the air. The National Democratic Congress (NDC) is walking a tight rope trying to balance the burial of the late president and organising itself effectively to contest the December 7 presidential elections.

Meanwhile, the funeral is set for another major setback. The funeral, which will be held in Accra, will coincide with the annual celebration of the Ga traditional area.

The planning committee has settled on the Flagstaff House for interment even though the family wanted it at Otuam.

By Raphael Adeniran &Sarah Afful-Darlington

Source: Daily Guide/Ghana

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"Prez Mills Was Never Punished In School"

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Category: NewsBrief

Created on Wednesday, 01 August 2012 00:00

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"Prez Mills Was Never Punished In School"

Mr. Sampson Yeboah , a primary school mate of late President John Atta Mills, has said from primary three to the time the late president wrote the Common Entrance Examination he was never punished because he was a law abiding pupil.

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Still Team B

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Category: Special Reports

Created on Wednesday, 01 August 2012 00:00

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Still Team B

……as Governor of the falling cedi partners Prez Mahama

President John Dramani Mahama, has named the man who has superintended over the rapid depreciation of the Ghana Cedi against all major trading currencies, Kwesi Amissah Arthur, as his Vice President.

The choice was finally made yesterday after almost a week of indecision on the part of the President over who the Vice President would be.

Dr Amissah Arthur, barring any unforeseen circumstance, is likely to be named as the running to the President at the September 1 congress of the ruling party.

{sidebar id=11 align=right}There are, however, worrying sentiments and signals being expressed by NDC big-wigs who believe Dr Amissah Arthur’s choice as Vice President was made only to counter Mahamudu Bawumia, NPP Vice presidential candidate, and make up for the inadequacies of President Mahama rather than help the NDC win the December elections.

According to our Castle source, the NDC big-wigs, including Samuel Ofosu Ampofo, ET Mensah, Victor Smith and Nii Lante Vanderpuije, are of the opinion that President Mahama does not have grassroots appeal and as such the party needed a candidate who would help the NDC win the election.

“The NDC hierarchy believes Amissah Arthur has no platform charisma and no links to grassroots and are worried about how the party will win the 2012 election,” the source added.

Sources at the Castle yesterday told the New Statesman that series of high profile meetings were held at the Castle, Osu, during which President Mahama finally settled on Dr Amissah-Arthur, after being aided by NDC big-wigs who had narrowed down the choices between him and Dr Kwesi Botchway.

Kojo Tsikata, according to our Castle Source, preferred Dr Kwesi Botchway who happens to be Ghana’s longest serving Minister of Finance and Economic Planning and is seen as a man who will receive widespread commendation from the international financial community.

{sidebar id=12 align=right}This choice by President Mahama, according to political commentators, is aimed solely at countering the glittering effects Dr Bawumia, has had on the electorate, describing it as an act of political equalization.

Reacting to the news, a source at the NPP headquarters told the New Statesman that the choice of Dr Amissah Arthur reinforces the belief of the NPP that “the value is worse.”

According to the source, President Mahama and Dr Amissah Arthur, both members of the Economic Management team with the latter being the Chairman, have supervised the failure of the Ghanaian economy, which is the biggest failure of the NDC government.

“The NDC has realised the potency of Dr Bawumia and the acknowledgement of the fact that the economy is the biggest failure of this government. Under President Mahama and Dr Amissah Arthur, the Cedi has seen its value plummet by more than 80%, low business confidence, rising cost of living and economic hardships,” the source noted.

Dr Mahamudu, on the other hand, as head of the African Development Bank in Zimbabwe reduced the inflation of the Southern African Country from some 3,900% to 3.95% in under two years of being in office.

Ironically, the source further revealed that this is not the first time President Mahama and Kwesi Amissah Arthur have worked together in government.

The source stated that President Mahama, the Minister of Communications in 2000, and Kwesi Amissah Arthur, also deputy Minister of Finance at the time, were part of the Economic Management Team who transformed Ghana into a Highly Indebted Poor Country.

“It was under this same team in the year 2000 that Ghana’s GDP growth rate hovered at an abysmal low of 3.7%. Inflation stood at 41% and was on the rise. On the interest rate front, the Bank of Ghana Base rate was over 50% with the 91-Day Treasury Bill Rate at 40.5%. Total Debt as a ratio of Gross Domestic Product stood at 189%. International Reserves stood at US$ 253 million, adequate for three weeks of import cover,” the source added.

Dr Amissah’s elevation to the position of Vice President has left many wondering who would become the Governor of the Bank of Ghana. Intelligence picked up by the New Statesman has the Paramount Chief of the Asogli Traditional Council, Togbui Afede, and Alhassan Andani as the frontrunners.

Fiifi Arhin Source: thestatesmanonline.com

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