If the first demand of anyone who aspires to be president is the autopsy report of late President John Evans Atta Mills, then such a person is not fit to become president and does not know what he is about, the General Secretary of the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC), Mr Johnson Asiedu Nketia has said.
Mr Nketia’s comment was in reaction to the call by his opposite number in the Progressive People’s Party (PPP), Murtala Mohammed, to the NDC to release the autopsy report of the late president.
On July 24, 2012, Prof Mills became the first Ghanaian leader to die in office, but with the exact cause of death withheld from the public, speculations have been rife that there may have been foul play in the former law professor’s passing which occurred only six months to the 2012 polls.
Prof Mills’ health had deteriorated by then and he had been considered too weak to endure the physical demands of campaigning.
Speaking at its first national rally at Kawukudi Park at Nima in Accra on Saturday September 17 Mr Murtala told the NDC: “If you didn’t kill Mills and if you are not happy Mills died, produce the autopsy report.
We are challenging John Mahama to produce the autopsy report of [late] President Mills. The Central Region people here, I want you to listen to me: if John Mahama comes to your region, tell him to produce the autopsy report.”
Mr Mohammed’s comments came within the same week that PPP founder and flag bearer Dr Papa Kwesi Nduom, at a rally in Cape Coast, had said some NDC officials put on a public show of sorrow with Prof Mills’ demise but privately rejoiced over his passing, saying it had paved the way for their electoral triumph in 2012.
He told the crowd at a rally held on Thursday September 15: “Mills was our kinsman and he became the president.
Some people criticised and attacked him until he died. And some of the NDC people themselves thanked God that Mills died. Is that not strange? And after his death they came back here to tell us to replace him with another person from the Central Region.”
“After all that, they go about provoking us that if Mills had not died, the NDC wouldn’t be in government today. … It appears as though they deliberately pushed him to the seat so they can commit the wrongs behind him.”
The party’s Chairman, Nii Allotey Brew Hammond has defended his General Secretary’s call for the autopsy to be publicised by the government if it had nothing to hide. He told Prince Minkah on the Executive Breakfast Show on Class91.3FM’s Executive Breakfast Show on Monday 19 September that making the autopsy public will prove the NDC government is transparent.
Responding to the remarks on the Executive Breakfast Show (EBS) on Class91.3FM on Monday September 19, Mr Nketia said: “Anybody who wants to be president and his starting point is to demand autopsy reports from political parties of deceased persons is not fit to become president at all and he doesn’t know what he is about because this is something that everybody knows that if you are not a relative, you have no business handling… so, if you are telling me that somebody who wants to be president is demanding [the] autopsy report of deceased persons from their political parties, then the conclusion is as good as you can guess.”
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