President Akufo-Addo with a delegation from the family of the late former President John Evans Atta Mills after a courtesy call at the Jubilee House. Picture by Gifty Ama Lawson.
The family of the late former President John Evans Atta Mills has launched a fresh campaign to know the cause of his death.
It follows series of failed attempts to know what might have killed him.
At a meeting with President Akufo-Addo at the Jubilee House (presidency) last Friday, Kyedomhemaa of Ekumfi Asaman, Nana Enyimfua III, who spoke on behalf of the family, appealed to the President to use his high office to assist them in retrieving the autopsy report that was carried out following the death of their beloved son some 12 years ago on July 24, 2012.
This was during a courtesy call to thank the President for the honour done the late former President and his family by renovating his grave side, the ‘Asomdwe Park’.
Twelve years after the death of the former President, they said it was unacceptable that the family has not been given an autopsy report.
“Since I was enstooled as the Queenmother, I have not seen any autopsy report in the hands of the family. It is a very difficult situation that the family and I have. We are unable to explain to anyone the actual cause of death of the former President because we do not have the official autopsy report,” she noted with deep-seated concern.
“It is only right that we know exactly what the doctor found as the cause of his death. To this end, I wish to plead with your government for and on behalf of my entire family, to assist us in securing the autopsy report,” Nana Enyimfua III said.
If the autopsy report is obtained, she said “it will go a long way to put the family’s continued confusion on the cause of death of the late Atta Mills to rest and the future generations of our family will have a source document to use in explaining to their children of the real cause of death of the former President.”
On his part, President Akufo-Addo wondered whether an autopsy was carried out on the body of the late former President when he died on July 24, 2012.
It came to him as a surprise that a basic document such as an autopsy report after the death of such an important personality like the former President should be a subject of controversy.
But Chief Executive Officer of the Atta Mills Institute, Koku Anyidoho, who was part of the delegation, interrupted and said but for the inquiry of the Queenmother, he would have loved to stay completely away from the issue of the autopsy report on the death of his former boss, who he served as Director of Communications at the Presidency at the time.
That, he said, was because he is personally not aware of any autopsy report on the cause of death of the former President.
However, he said he was aware that the brother of the late former President who happens to be the current National Democratic Congress (NDC) Member of Parliament for the Komenda-Edina-Eguafo-Abrem (KEEA) Constituency in the Central Region, Samuel Atta-Mills, is on record to have said that he has an autopsy report and that he knows the cause of the death of his brother.
President Akufo-Addo then came in to assure the family that he will give their request all the necessary attention it deserves since he considers it to be a legitimate demand.
Since Professor Atta Mills died as a sitting President, President Akufo-Addo insisted his autopsy report should be a matter of public record and not a secret.
Responding to the family’s thank you gesture on the redevelopment of the grave side of the late President Mills, President Akufo-Addo said the late former President was his good friend back in school at the University of Ghana, and even though they had different ideological difference, it was only right that the man who was his contemporary is given a befitting resting place, especially when he lost his life right in the line of duty, serving his country at the highest office of the land.
To the request of the family for President Akufo-Addo to do something significant in the Ekumfi Traditional Area which will serve as a monument in remembrance of him after he leaves office on January 7, 2025, President Akufo-Addo said he accepts the challenge and will do all within his power as the chiefs and elders have requested last year in his office.
By Charles Takyi-Boadu, Presidential Correspondent