The many unanswered questions about Professor Mills death call for a thorough investigation
Many people will question my credentials in asking probing questions about the death of our former President. Some might even ask why I, a stranger am even mourning more than the bereaved. Others will suggest I wait until after the burial before I start doing what I am doing.
But I cannot wait for the burial to take place before I share my thoughts with Ghanaians. Something might happen to me even today and I might not have the opportunity to put my thoughts on paper. But since there are daggers in men’s smiles, I have also taken the necessary precautions to ensure my safety and survival. But who knows? There might be predators lurking in the dark to pounce on me just as they have “done President Mills in”. Definitely, I know my Redeemer lives and He will surely guide me on the dangerous precipice I have chosen to tread.
It is upon such a premise that I now advance my arguments.
Attacks on John Jerry Rawlings: The rented crowd is at it again. Rawlings was only saying what was public knowledge. He was expressing his grief at the passing away of someone he dearly loved. If the aides of the late President had not deliberately put a wedge between the deceased President and his benefactor, the untimely demise of the former could have been averted.
Raymond Archer added mischief to the whole comedy of the absurd when he published that the Rawlingses were ejected from the residence of Naadu Mills when they went to pay their condolences to her. This has been proved to be the greatest lie of the century.
Nii Lante Vanderpuye, shedding crocodile tears went on a different tandem when he said the former First Lady was upset at ex-President Rawlings comments. This too was a lie. If anything at all, she would be pleased with such a comment, for it was something she would have loved to say but for some reasons, she couldn’t.
National Security Adviser, Brigadier Nunoo Mensah has stated that the former First Lady had insisted that her husband should resign. But anytime the former President brought about the issue, he, Nunoo Mensah would advise him to read the Book of Job in the Bible. I believe the former Fist Lady would be grateful to ex-President Rawlings for echoing what was on her mind.
Professor Olikoye Kuti’s comments on the death of his brother, Fela Anikulapo Kuti’s death: Fela died and his senior brother, Professor Ransome Olikoye Kuti, then Federal Minister of Health, Nigeria told the entire nation that his junior brother had died from the dreaded Aids disease.
Of course Fela’s numerous fans all over the nation were not happy with the revelation. Punches were thrown at him from various angles, but the Professor stood his ground. He said as Minister of Health he could not help but alert the nation to the dangers that awaited those who chose to follow the life style of his deceased brother.
Our late President needed enough rest to recuperate from his illness. But his Aides, blinded by selfish and unpatriotic motives, did not allow him. They injected him with ‘steroid’ and compelled him to use the energy so derived to tread the obvious path to Golgotha.
Contradictions in President Mahama’s account of the death of the President Mills: Our new President, John Mahama told the entire nation that on the day President Mills died, he and Mr Henry Martey Newman had been given an assignment by the former President. On their return, they had reported back to their boss before going to their respective offices. It was while he was in his office that the Chief of Staff informed him on phone that the President had suddenly been taken ill.
Listening to the Sister of the deceased President talking, one finds a lot of inconsistencies in President Mahama’s statements. On her arrival at the Castle, she was told by her brother, Dr Cadmel Mills that the doctors were working on the deceased President. After waiting for sometime, they were allowed to see the President.
They sang, prayed and even had lunch with their brother (President Mills) who complained that he had neck pains. They sent their junior brother, Samuel Atta Mills who stayed with the President at the Castle to buy cervical collar to support his neck. The sister, Madam Quarshie said she left for Cape Coast around 1.00pm. About 15 minutes later, she heard from her brother that the President had been rushed to the Hospital. But President Mahama and the Chief of Staff told the entire nation that the President was suddenly taken ill at 2.00pm and died exactly at 2.15pm. There is an unaccountable time difference on one hour between President Mahama’s account and that of the sister of the deceased President. Why the time difference? We must interrogate that.
If we accept the sister’s account as being accurate, and I don’t have any reason to doubt that, it then means that it was “ojoro” (as my Nigerian fiends would say) when President Mahama asked the whole nation to stand up to observe a minute silence at 2.15pm (time given as time of death of President Mills) on Tuesday, 31st July, 2012.
State of the President’s health when they returned from their assignment: President Mahama should tell the entire nation his Predecessor’s state of health before and after they returned from their assigned duty. What time they return and who and who were with the deceased President when they reported back at his office.
Will President John Mahama be kind enough to retract his statement that the President was suddenly taken ill and tell us exactly what happened? And if the President wasn’t well, why did they leave him all alone and go back to their respective offices? Ordinary as the rest of us are, anytime we report of one ailment or the other, we are not left to be alone. At least a member of the family stays with the sick person. How much more the President of the entire nation! Where were his personal Physician, the Press Assistant, and his Personal Assistant? Where was his Spokesperson, the one and only ubiquitous Koku Anyidoho? Where was Nii Lante Vanderpuye, the troubler of Odododiodoo and originator of “no Akan at Odododiodoo Constotuency” mantra?
Was there any ambulance at the Castle at the time the President collapsed? If there was, was there any entry in the log book of the ambulance? We also hear a disturbing report that the ambulance was called from outside. If this is so, does it not strike you as something unusual? Many ambulances were imported and distributed to various hospitals and health facilities all over the country. Why did they not send any to the Castle, the seat of Government? This somehow supports the theory that there was a grand conspiracy at the seat of power to ensure the demise of President John Evans Atta Mills.
Who are the physicians who attended to the President in his last moment on earth? We need to know their names and sauce. A Group of Physicians attending to no mean a person but the President of a country did not ask probing questions to find out that the President was experiencing some pains in the neck. And it took the President’s family to go and buy a cervical collar to support his neck! What are they all being paid to do?
Where were the dispatch riders? We are told there were no dispatch riders to accompany/escort the ambulance which was conveying the deceased President to the 37 Military Hospital. How many dispatch riders were on duty at the Castle on the day the President died? Our information is that the riders had accompanied Madam Quarshie the sister of President Mills on her trip back to Cape Coast. What are their names? At least, our new President John Dramani Mahama has told us that earlier on in the day, he and the Chief of Staff had gone on an assignment on behalf of the late President. Where were those riders who had escorted their convoy? Can we have their names?
Similarity with the gruesome murder of Chief Bola Ige: He was the Attorney General and Minister of Justice of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. He had gone to his country home in Ibadan for the weekend and was murdered in cold blood. His official security detail at his Ibadan Residence claimed they had gone to buy food at a nearby supermarket in the night. But before going, all of them had put their weapons in a sack which they tied with a rope. So when the assassins came, they had an easier task in eliminating a whole Chief Law Officer of the entire Federation.
The unavailability of dispatch riders to escort the ambulance taking the President of the republic for treatment smacks of mischief, and callousness and the perpetrators of such heinous crime must not be allowed to go scot free. They must be dealt with in accordance with the laws of our country. Where were the dispatch riders? How many of them are at the Castle? Could the office of the Chief of Staff make available to us a list of all staff from various Departments who were on duty the day the President died?
If such evil-minded persons could force the President in his ill health to ride in a convoy escorted by dispatch riders to Mallam Atta Market and Agbogbloshie markets to buy some few balls of kenkey, I see no reason why they should deny the president the use of escort in his most critical moment when his life was at stake. The diversion of the one or so riders to accompany President Mills’ sister was only a ruse in order to make it possible for their plan to be hatched fruitfully.
We need Answers: What do they want to tell us? That the President whom they had said was in the best state of health suddenly fell ill and died? No, they should tell us something better. Every available information points to the fact that the President was not feeling well on Sunday, 22nd July, 2012, a day after he had celebrated his birthday. We know that a Church Service is held every Sunday at the Castle. We are also aware that the President could not attend the Church Service on that day in question due to his ill health. At least the Chaplain or Pastor who conducted the Service has confirmed that. The President had complained of severe pains all over his body on Monday, July 22, 2912, the day before his demise. This much we know.
Why should President John Mahama and the Chief of Staff at the Presidency, Henry Martey tell us that the President was suddenly taken ill? What do they seek to gain by that cover-up? And if I may ask once again, why should the President and Commander in Chief of Ghana be left alone at a time when he had complained he was not feeling well?
Again, the normal thing when a sick person is being transferred to another hospital is to put the receiving facility on the alert in order to prepare them to receive the in-coming patient. If such an arrangement could be made for ordinary citizens, why were such procedures followed in the case of our President who also doubled as Commander in Chief of our Armed Forces? Was the deceased President accompanied by any nurse of the doctors who had attended to him in the morning? What time did they reach the hospital and what was the state of his health when they arrived at the 37 Military Hospital? Did they take along to the hospital the medical folder of the deceased President? Why was the identity of the President not declared on arrival at the hospital?
If they did not have anything to hide, why did they breach these basic elementary rudiments on how to transfer a patient from one hospital to another facility? These are some and many other questions Ghanaians would like to have answers to. I am told an autopsy has been done. But that should not be the end of the matter and I know it will not. We would like to subject the report of the autopsy to public scrutiny. He was our President and so every Ghanaian has a stake in knowing what killed him and how he died. That is why we are calling for a full scale investigation into his death.
My warning went unheeded: Those paid to do a job must be seen to be doing it to the best of their ability. Can the hangers-on around the president say with a clear conscience that what they did was the best they could do under such circumstances? What did proponents of the “President is well” mantra hope to gain by deceiving Ghanaians that the Number One Citizen of the land was well, when he wasn’t?
I had warned them to be careful with the way they were handling the health status of President Mills and that if anything untoward happened to him, they would be held responsible. The warning went unheeded and now the unexpected has happened. Whom do we blame?
Tongues are wagging: Already, there are whispers in the air to the effect that President Mills was “done in” just as the late Chief Moshood Kashimawo Olabisi Abiola and General Sanni Abacha were “done in” in Nigeria. A cup of tea did it in Abiola’s case while an apple injected with toxin and administered by an Indian lady was what sent Abacha to his untimely death. Both Abiola and Abacha foamed at the mouth before giving up the ghost. President Mills had blood oozing from the nose before giving up the ghost. The similarity is obvious.
Perchance, did the perpetrators of this dastardly act administer the ‘coup de grace’ on the President’s birthday? We know for sure that the President was not in the best frame of health. But what must agitate the minds of Ghanaians are these questions: Why should he complain of bodily pains a day after he had celebrated his birthday? Why should he die just three days after the celebration? What food or drink was given to him during the celebrations? Who prepared the cake and who and who ate it? We need to interrogate these issues in order to arrive at the heart of the matter.
Conspiracy Theory: Already, there is a conspiracy theory making its rounds. It becomes more prevalent when viewed against the background that Four days before the demise of Professor John Evans Atta Mills, some known NDC members were jostling for the position of Vice President. How and Why? Did the then President tell those people that he was going to resign?
Secondly, how come a giant billboard in Accra with the picture of President Mills and the inscription “Mills, the man you can trust” was removed and replaced with another one about the NHIS one week before the death of the President. Was it a mere coincidence? The public would like to know.
Epitaph on the tomb of an NDC sympathizer: This is what an NDC sympathizer at Nkuraakan in the Eastern Region asked to be engraved on his tomb after his death “Herein lies the mortal remains of Tetteh Pupulampo who believed so much in the better life agenda of the NDC but was left to die wretched”.
The Aides of President John Evans Fiifi Atta Mills deserted him in his hour of death. What pained him most was the look of betrayal on the faces of his most trusted aides when he needed them most.
Conclusion: There has been complacency somewhere; there have also been callousness and conspiracy somewhere. In the end, complacency and callousness have combined with conspiracy to bring us to the situation in which we find ourselves. The President to the best of my knowledge was “murdered”. It was the most callous and devilish act of the highest order of the century and in the country.
Daniel Danquah Damptey ([email protected])([email protected])
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