The confusion arose when Koku Anyidoho, the dismissed deputy General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), extended his scheduled time, causing a delay in the subsequent NDC event planned to commemorate 12 years since President Mills’ passing.

Two wreath-laying ceremonies were planned for the day, with the first organized by Mr. Anyidoho.

This event ran over time, delaying the second ceremony organized by the NDC and the JEA Mills Memorial Heritage.

According to the late President’s brother, Samuel Atta-Mills, Mr. Anyidoho brought in individuals he referred to as fake family members and instructed them to remain at the venue, preventing the NDC from commencing their program on time.

“You’re not related to this man and anybody could come here and celebrate him. He [Atta Mills] is for the country so why would you want to clash with us? And as a coward as he is, he ran away and left the people here – the fake family over here.

“… We didn’t intimidate anybody but when persuasion fails, force is applied. Indeed, we are at Asomdwee Park but when we talk to you and you don’t understand, sometimes a little bit of encouragement will make you move,” he explained.

In an interview with JoyNews’ Maxwell Agbagba, Mr. Atta-Mills, who also serves as the MP for Komenda Edina Eguafo Abrem constituency in the Central Region, alleged that Mr. Anyidoho is backed by ‘powerful individuals.’

“When they advise you and you don’t listen, this is what happens. But Koku should know that he’s hiding behind a political power. Every political power in this world has an expiration date. A day will come that the political power he is hiding behind will expire,” he warned.

Commenting on the incident, Mercy Araba Ahema Quarshie, the sister of former President Atta Mills, described it as ugly and disgusting, insisting that the attendees of the earlier ceremony were not their relatives.

The bust was unveiled on Sunday (July 24, 2022) by President Nana Addo-Dankwa Akufo-Addo, to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the passing of the late President.

At a press conference in Parliament Monday morning, the Minority called for immediate steps to be taken to correct it.

The Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu described the omission of the name on the bust in his memory as unfortunate.

He said the name should be on the plaque on the bust to inform visitors to the park whose bust has been erected instead of the name of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and the founder of the Atta-Mills Institute, Koku Anyidoho as those who unveiled the plaque.

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He said those who visited the park immediately the bust was unveiled realised that the plaque did not have his date of birth and when he passed on as part of the inscription and the Minority find that as unacceptable.

“We are demanding from the President, Nana Addo-Dankwa Akufo-Addo and his associates such as Koku Anyidoho to do what is right and appropriate and to remind them that the office of the former President is an institutional office and it goes beyond the persona John Evans Atta-Mills”, he stated.

He has also been accused of engaging with the government to refurbish the Asomdwee Park, the final resting place of the late President without recourse to the family of Professor Mills.

In a radio interview Monday morning [July 25, 2022], Mr Anyidoho dismissed the criticisms and said while former President John Dramani Mahama was in office [July 24, 2012 to January 6, 2017], he pleaded with him [Mahama] to erect a tombstone on Mills’ grave and put the Asomdwee Park in a proper state but he was ignored.

He said normally, when a person passes on in Ghana, the family erects a tombstone in the first year memorial, but in Mills’ case, that was not done. There was no tombstone on his grave.

Besides, the Asomdwee Park where he was buried was left in a bad state.

He said after four and half years of President Magama’s tenure, that was not done.

When he (Anyidoho) initiated moves to plead with President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo after he succeeded President Mahama in 2017 to erect the tombstone and rehabilitate the Asomdwee Park, members of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) told him to wait till Mr Mahama was in power again so he could do it.

He claimed he was told it was unacceptable and it will amount to desecration if he did not wait for former President Mahama to do it.

In the radio interview with Accra based Oman FM monitored by Graphic Online, Mr Anyidoho commended President Akufo-Addo for agreeing to his request for the state to rehabilitate the park to a status befitting the stature of the late President Mills.

He gave an assurance that he would ensure the regular maintenance of the park.

Mr Anyidoho disagreed with the suggestion that he had no cordial relations with the Atta Mills family and said he has a “very well” cordial relations with the family.

He said that is why he has decided not to react to many of the accusations since it was not really coming from the family as a collective.

According to him, the former President, after months in office, was not willing to pay the ex-gratia of MPs due to the country’s ailing economy.

“I will remember in 2009 when we came into office, the country was struggling financially. But the man wasn’t willing to pay after he saw the budget for the ex-gratia.”

Speaking on Adom TV’s Badwam Show, he revealed that the late Mills threatened to vacate his office after a crunch meeting with the MPs over the ex-gratia settlement.

“He told the MPs during a meeting with the MPs that he can’t ignore the plight of Ghanaians, the present economic hardship and release this money.

“And to side with the MPs, its their legal right so they definitely demanded for it but he said ‘if you are forcing me to pay this money then I will take my briefcase and leave the Castle’.”

Mr Chai was full of praise indicating that, “many young ones who were new to Parliament learnt a lot from him.”

He said former President Mills had called him that he was going to announce his resignation because former President Flt. Lt. Jerry John Rawlings who brought him to political limelight was disturbing him.

According to Prof. Ahwoi, the late Professor Mills had complained to him that he was receiving “constant attacks” on his personality from Mr. Rawlings, founder of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), who made him his vice between early 1997 and early 2001.

The ex-minister said the straw that broke the camel’s back was a comment Mr. Rawlings made in Tamale which made Prof. Mills call him (Ahowi) and said in Fante, “I have resigned.”

Speaking on Citi TV after the launch of his book entitled: “Working with Rawlings”, the former minister recounted that “there was one particular incident which caused President Mills nearly to resign. In fact, he resigned as President. The only thing that saved this country was that he called to tell me he was resigning.”

“I was at IEA conference at Aburi when he (Mills) called and said ‘Kwamena, have you heard about what Jerry (Mr. Rawlings) had gone to say about me in Tamale’ and I said no. Then he added ‘get the audio and listen to it because I have resigned and I don’t want anybody to stop me’,” he disclosed.

“And I said to him, Mr. President, I believed that you have decided to resign, but I also believe that you are not sure whether you have taken the right decision. You want a second opinion otherwise you would not have called to tell me. I would have heard about it in the media,” he narrated.

Prof. Ahwoi said he requested the late President to give him time to consult his “gang (that is how I put it). And so I called Captain Tsikata and he said I should arrange to go and see him, and should bring in Totobi Kwakye.”

“By Sunday evening, we went to his residence. He (Mills) had actually packed his things in suitcases – everything – ready to leave.

“So we talked about four hours which ran into 12 midnight and we managed to convince him to stay because we were taking certain corrective measures,” he revealed.

“We were successful in those measures and as a result he stayed. Otherwise, he was going to resign on an account of the way Jerry Rawlings was treating him,” he added.

Atta Mortuary Man Jab

Prof. Ahwoi said it all started when Mr. Rawlings in 2006 approached him and his brothers to find a replacement for Prof. Mills, “who was supposed not to be well” as the NDC candidate.

“He approached my senior brother, Ato Ahwoi, to contest Prof. Mills in the NDC primaries, and we took offence because Jerry knew the role I and Ato had played in getting Prof. Mills out of the comfort of academia to come and join the turbulence of Ghanaian politics (sic),” he said.

“He knew that there was a very close chemistry between us, especially Ato and Prof. Mills, and therefore as I have recounted in my book, I thought that he was asking us to betray Prof. Mills,” he added.

The former Local Government Minister said when Ato Ahwoi refused to accede to Mr. Rawlings’s proposal, he fell on Eddy Annan, who was also another close confidant of Mills, asserting that the late President was virtually living in Eddy Annan’s house while he was the Vice-President.

He stated that when Rawlings failed to achieve his mission, things started deteriorating, saying “it was from that time that we got upset and the drifting apart started. And it got worse when Mills became President and Jerry began his attacks on him.”

‘Attacks?’ the host, Samuel Atta Mensah asked and Prof. Ahwoi answered ‘yes’, and Prof. also asked rhetorically, “Did you not hear about Atta Mortuary Man story and the Konongo Kaya? Do you know what Konongo Kaya means?”

“Atta Mortuary Man used to dress people nicely when their bodies were brought to Tetteh Quashie and for him nobody was very sure what was going to happen to him when he died,” he explained.

On Konongo Kaya, Prof. Ahwoi said was the man who could not perform his task and would not leave it for another person who can do it better, adding these are all kinds of innuendoes made by ex-President Rawlings in apparent attacks on Prof. Atta Mills.

Calls have been made by several Ghanaians for the cause of the death of the leader who died some months to the 2012 polls to be revealed.

The flagbearer of the Progressive People’s Party (PPP), Dr Papa Kwesi Nduom promised the people of the central region that he would investigate the cause of the death of the late law professor.

“Professor Mills was a bona fide citizen and also the president of Ghana when he died and we believe he deserves an investigation into his death to restore dignity to his person, the high office of the President of the Republic of Ghana, his family and the people of the Central Region,” he said.

He said the objective of the party is to prevent what happened to a sitting president from happening again.

“We are interested in protecting all our presidents from falling victim to the circumstances of the death of the professor,” he said.

“A full scale investigation and the recommendations thereof will make our nation great and strong and prepare us to handle future situations more carefully and in a manner that promote sacrifice, service and loyalty to God and country from our future leaders,” he added.

The NPP also promised to investigate and come out with the cause of death of the late President when elected.

And this is one of the numerous promises many of the voters especially those in the Central Region are hoping the Akufo-Addo administration fulfills.

The National Youth Organiser of the NPP, Sammi Awuku speaking on Peace FM’s Kokrokoo on Friday however promised the cause of the death of the late leader would be revealed soon.

Angry footsoldiers and some persons in the leadership of the NDC, he said would be the ones who would soon come out with the truth surrounding Mills’ death.

“I can bet my last coin on it that if you want to know how Professor Mills died, it would appear in their national officers elections and that of the presidential elections because when it gets there, everybody will pour everything into it to make sure they gain an advantage…,” he said.

He therefore called on Ghanaians to exercise patience as the NDC would soon come out with more deadly secrets than has already been heard and written about.

Sammi Awuku said the NDC lost the elections because they specialized in hammering on the perceived weaknesses in the NPP instead of selling their message.

Listen to Sammi Awuku’s submission on Peace FM

Source: Adomonline.com | KWAKU NTI |frank.nti@35.232.176.128|Twitter: @NanaKwakuNti