Dr Cadman Mills, brother of the late President John Evan Atta Mills, appears to have opened a can of worms over what might have killed his elder brother at the Osu Castle.
The circumstances under which former President Mills died on July 24, 2012 became a taboo subject when the National Democratic Congress (NDC) was in power, but the mystery seems to be unraveling since the New Patriotic Party (NPP) took power on January 7 after resoundingly defeating the NDC in the 2016 general elections.
Explosive Interview
In a first public interview after the exit of the NDC from power, Cadman Mills, who was an advisor to his brother, told networks under the Excellence in Broadcasting (EIB) Group, including Starr FM in Accra on Wednesday that the NDC government did not want the public to know that President Mills was sick.
“He’s not somebody who will hide things but for some strange reasons, they decided that politically it was not allowable for people to know that he was sick,” he said.
Interestingly, when the NDC was in office, Cadman Mills, an economist, defended the then President John Mahama, who had succeeded his brother and his government whenever queries were raised about the untimely death of Prof. Mills.
He is currently complaining that his brother is being treated shabbily even in death by his own party, the NDC.
Visibly Sick
Cadman Mills confessed that “I went to China and when I came back I couldn’t recognise my brother, he was not even coherent,” he said, adding, “He was very visibly sick and I’d never seen him like that before and I said we had to evacuate him immediately…we had to go to the US and that is when they started telling me that elections are going to be soon and politically it was not right….that was the first time I was very disrespectful of the Presidency.”
He said, “I told them my peace of mind and I decided we had to go to the USA. What really got me furious was that they said he was going to the US for a routine medical checkup and I said what are you people talking about? “My brother is a human being, he’s not well…I wanted him to take the time necessary to get well.”
“The fact of you being a president doesn’t mean you don’t get sick and what is political about getting sick – but you see the narrative had been developed for a long time that he was a very sick man, he was on the verge of death at any given time, all of these were not true.”
He added: “Whatever got him ill was in April or May, it was something I’d never seen before, surely enough we went to the US and lucky enough they detected very quickly what’s causing it and he got much better. I was very angry with him when he came back and he wanted to show everybody that he was well…I confronted him on a lot of things including that.”
Massive Stroke
Dr. Cadman Mills on August 10, 2012, the day President Mills was buried, said the President died as a result of massive stroke, although he had created a rosy, heavenly picture over his brother’s death.
He said he was queried by the NDC powerful bigwigs when he revealed the cause of his brother’s death as massive stroke and added that he wanted to dispel rumours that he suffered from throat cancer.
“He was coherent but he was complaining of very severe neck pain. Few days before his death, he was complaining of sensitivity to light. Since his death I have done lots of research, and some of the symptoms he evidently exhibited very clearly pointed to the very beginning of a stroke of some sort… What I saw and per the autopsy report, he died out of a very massive…stroke and aneurysm.”
“Haemorrhage is very often used interchangeably, that is what I saw. At the material moment he collapsed, I was not physically there…I have to be honest with you, that people sort of questioned me why I revealed the cause of his death: ‘Why would you say that?’ I said: ‘I’m sorry I’m telling you the truth.”
“Would you rather allow Ghanaians to think he died out of throat cancer, oral sex and things like that? But that is not what he died of. Let’s tell the truth, of course not, he didn’t die of throat cancer …I know he will forgive me.”
“Prof Mills had a growth in his sinuses and it was quite sizeable that some people call pre-cancerous, others call cancerous, I don’t know,” he said.
Public Inquest
Dr Cadman Mills stated that with the high level of suspicion over the late President’s death, an inquest would be the best option to settle the matter since the NDC is not in power for people to doubt the findings.
“To be honest with you at this, I’m just so fed up with the speculations and suspicions, if it would help matters…if Ghanaians will once and for all be at peace for them to have an inquest, please do it, please have an inquest so that Ghanaians can rest and be at peace,” he said.
“Unfortunately we in Ghana, I’m not so sure that if they did an inquest there still will not be people who’ll question it. But at the very least, the NDC is not in power so nobody can say they falsified the results; hopefully if an inquest is done Ghanaians will finally rest at peace and I will rest, I’ll be at peace too…and hopefully President Mills will be at peace. I’m not requesting for an inquest, all I’m saying at this stage is that I have no issues with an inquest, I think it will be better that it is done.”
Hearing & Vision
He admitted that President Mills had vision and hearing problems as a result of a comprehensive treatment he went through in South Africa in 2005.
“My brother got very sick and was in South Africa in 2005 and he had treatment in South Africa and part of the effect of the treatment that he had was that progressively it affected his vision and also affected his hearing,” he said, adding “Otherwise, the treatment was extremely successful and he was getting progressively better.”
He said, “The only problem he had was his vision and even that was getting better with time. We were very conscious of the sickness he had in 2005 and therefore he regularly had medical checkups to confirm that everything was okay.”
Now, some things were happening that I must be very honest I wasn’t happy about. Fiifi (ex-Prez Mills) as I called him was very open, very honest and he’ll sit down with you and tell you in gory detail what his prognosis was, what the diagnosis of his disease was.”
Troublesome Koku
He admitted that President Mills liked his trusted aide Koku Anyidoho very much and said it was a ‘weakness’ he saw in his brother.
“I heard Koku Anyidoho say in an interview that he loved President Mills and it was returned. President Mills, I don’t know why, but he had such a weakness for this troublesome boy and President Mills absolutely loved him and Koku could get away with murder.”
“When Koku did something and you went to President Mills to complain to him, he would say, ‘Don’t mind Koku’ and that meant he didn’t want to hear anymore.”
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