Mills Ghost Emerges

Former President John Evans Atta Mills
The conundrum surrounding the cause of death of former President John Evans Atta Mills has emerged once more on the national political scene after National Organiser Yaw Boateng Gyan of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) allegedly passed a remark bordering on the subject.

Although his was an alleged threat about a tape in his possession which could give a clue as to the cause of death of the late president, Yaw Boateng Gyan has tried to no avail to distance himself from the subject. The fire stoked by that alleged allusion is raging across the media landscape, with worrying ramifications among the deceased's family.

A can of worms appears to have been opened with the intervention of the family head of the former president who said he and others in the family would review what the national organizer allegedly said with a view to demanding further details.

Speaking yesterday after a media hullabaloo over the supposed comments of national organizer of the NDC, Paul Akom, the family head of the Mills family, told Oman FM that following the controversial death of his brother a number of tales have emerged about what could have killed him.

He said 'following the detection of blood oozing from the ears and nose of the deceased I cleaned him up and asked the guard at the time to leave. We heard that Mills was killed by some soldiers in one breath and in another we heard that he was hit with a stick. Others said he was killed by his guards. Now that the national organizer has said what he is reported to have said we would seek more information after a meeting with the family.'

Paul Akom said that although the family was told that after six months his remains would be returned to the family, to date this has not been done.'

Even in accidents family members are furnished with the cause of death after post-mortem, he said.

'In the case of the late President Mills nothing like that has happened. We have not been told what killed Prof Mills.'

The emerging dust over the cause of death of the late President is a rekindling of a national discourse a long time after the deceased's death.

Many Ghanaians are demanding answers about the immediate cause of his death.

Although Paul Akom said that their family was told that he suffered a mild stroke, they would still want to be told the real cause of his immediate death.

It appears that there is no closure in sight to the controversy.

By A.R. Gomda