Gov't disburses more than four billion to disaster victims

Accra, Dec. 31, GNA - The four-member Committee of the Accra Stadium Disaster Fund on New Year eve gave a detailed account of the amount of money realised from various donations and how they were disbursed to the affected families.

A statement issued by the committee said 4.637 billion was realised as at October 31, 2004, out of which it disbursed 2.344 billion cedis to the beneficiaries.

The committee said it invested in gilt-edged securities yielding an interest income of 1.467 as at October 31, 2004.

One hundred and twenty-seven soccer fans were killed in a stampede after police fired tear gas into riotous supporters who had ripped off the seats and hurled them onto the tartan tracks during a premier league match between archrivals Asante Kotoko and Hearts of Oak on Wednesday, May 9, 2001. Hearts won the match 2-1.

The government subsequently constituted the committee made up of Mr John Saka Addo, Chairman, Madam Helena Cobbina, Superintendent of Police (member), Mr Kwesi Essel-Koomson an Insurance Broker (member) and Mrs Regina A. Apotsi, Chief Executive of the Ministry of Justice and Attorney General's Department (member) to disburse the money to victims. The committee screened 115 representatives of the deceased. It also recorded 148 names of the children of the dead. Four were in pre-nursery schools, 45 were in nursery, 55 at primary level, nine in JSS, 12 in SSS while 14 were children out of school.

The statement said the committee, which was later constituted into a Board of Trustees of the Fund on August 5, 2003 also catered for 325 injured persons scattered across some of the principal hospitals in the country.

A statement of account attached to the released showed that the committee also spent 2.190 billion cedis as administrative expenses which included stationary and equipment, payment to officers for the production of a disaster report and sitting allowances plus secretarial allowances and transport.