Samuel Attah Mills
Brother of late President John Evans Atta Mills is accusing the Atta Mills Institute and the Coastal Development Authority (CODA) over alleged tampering with the tomb of the former president without recourse to the family.
According to the brother, Samuel Atta Mills who described the act as culturally offensive, the family does not recognize the act by the institute with regard to the remains of the late president at the Asomdwee Park.
The 10 years anniversary of the passing of the late President will be marked on Sunday July 24, 2022.
Brother of the late President, Samuel Atta Mills who is the Member of Parliament (MP) for Komenda-Edina-Eguafo Abirem in the Central Region has been accusing former Deputy General Secretary of his party, National Democratic Congresst.
He said “A group calling itself Atta Mills Institute that the family doesn’t even recognize, and Coastal Development Authority, have gone to break the grave of President John Evans Atta Mills. They have removed the tomb, and they claim that they are rebuilding it.”
Ghana’s first Presidential mausoleum and burial ground of Ghana’s late President John Evans Attah Mills, the Asomdwee Park was in a deplorable state.
Reports indicate that the park was no longer secure as its security had been left in a sorry state and no longer a secured place at least befitting enough for former leader worth celebrating.
The condition of the park and the late President’s tomb is nothing to write home about, as some parts of the fencing protecting it have broken down and the area taken over by narcotic drugs users who openly defecate around.
But Samuel Atta Mills thinks that “My question is that, we have a family tradition. Now that they have touched someone’s grave, is the body still in there? Who has the body? Why will you touch the body without informing the family head? Under whose authority? Why do they want us to always go through grief? This is a former president, why will the government allow this to happen? This is an insult to the family and the nation.”
However, Samuel Koku Anyidoho responding to the allegations on Neat Fm, an Accra based radio station thinks otherwise as he described the brother of the late President as a disgrace.
He believes that there is no argument about the issue as the Asomdwee Park is being built by the Republic of Ghana and it is not a crime.
He questioned Samuel Atta Mills whether he is be able to locate the tomb of his late brother for about 10 years after his demise, saying that “He is disgrace to himself. Asomdwee Park is being built and we shall remember the former President in dignity. Those who will come, will come should come and those who will not come, let them not come. I’ll not argue over this thing. If your brother die 10 years ago, has been buried and the place has been horrible for 10 years, you’ll never come and dignify your brother by speaking in public and don’t do anything to eulogies him and then me, Koko Anyidoho, Atta Mills Institute decided to remember the man after giving me opportunity to work with him. Is it a crime I’ve committed?
“President Mills was President of the Republic of Ghana and he was buried as President of Ghana and not as a brother of Samuel Atta Mills.”
He questioned the whereabouts of the autopsy report of the late President, asking “where is the autopsy report? Look, anyway it is well.”
According to him, he does not know how it is a crime for Atta Mills Institute collaborate with government to execute a project as renovation of the Asomdwee Park.
Professor John Evans Atta Mills previously served as Vice-President from 1997 to 2001 under President Jerry Rawlings, and he stood unsuccessfully in the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections as the candidate of the NDC.
He is the first sitting Ghanaian head of state to die in office and was subsequently laid to rest at the Asomdwee Park.
John Evans Fiifi Atta Mills was a Ghanaian politician and legal scholar who served as President of Ghana from 2009 to 2012.
By Vincent Kubi