The Progressive People’s Party (PPP) has now taken the battle to the doorstep of President Mahama and his governing National Democratic Congress (NDC).
It has dared the president and his government to make public the autopsy report of the late President John Evans Atta Mills, if they have nothing to hide about his untimely death.
President Mills died on July 24, 2012 under bizarre circumstance – six months to the general election in which he was seeking re-election.
At a point the current Minister of Sports, Nii Lantey Vanderpuye, said Mills, who was the NDC’s presidential candidate, would not be going round to campaign and that when he mounted the campaign platform, he would only wave at the crowd and that his ‘good works would earn him the needed votes.’
Even though Professor Mills was known to be sick – a situation which resulted in his nasal accent – many had raised issues about the circumstance under which he died, with the government and its appointees giving conflicting accounts about what exactly caused his demise.
Some suspect that he was deliberately killed to make way for the current President, Mahama, even though there is no evidence to that effect.
But speaking at a political rally at Kawukudi park [Nima] in Accra over the weekend, General Secretary of the PPP, Murtala Mohammed, joined calls for President Mahama and his NDC to make public the autopsy report covering the man’s death, if their hands are clean.
“If you didn’t kill Mills and if you are not happy Mills died, produce the autopsy report; we are challenging John Mahama to produce the autopsy report of [late] President Mills. The Central Region people here, I want you to listen to me: if John Mahama comes to your region, tell him to produce the autopsy report,” he charged.
The party’s flag bearer, Dr Papa Kwesi Nduom, in the course of the week, claimed that when the late Professor died in 2012, some NDC officials pretended they were pained by his death but privately rejoiced over his demise since it paved way for their electoral victory that year.
“Mills was our kinsman and he became the president. Some people criticised and attacked him until he died. And some of the NDC people themselves thanked God that Mills died. Is that not strange? And after his death they came back here to tell us to replace him with another person from the Central Region,” he said whiles addressing party faithful in Cape Coast last Thursday.
Dr Nduom noted, “After all that, they go about provoking us that if Mills had not died, the NDC wouldn’t be in government today. … It appears as though they deliberately pushed him to the seat so they can commit the wrongs behind him.”
By Charles Takyi-Boadu