President John Dramani Mahama has pledged to honour the memory of the eight victims of the August 6 military helicopter crash by ensuring the success of his government’s “reset agenda” and safeguarding the future of their children.
Addressing mourners at the third-day funeral rites (Adua) of Alhaji Muniru Limuna Mohammed on Tuesday, August 12, the President announced that a special Education Fund would be launched during the state funeral at the Black Star Square on Friday, August 15, to support the schooling of the children left behind.
“There will be a state funeral on Friday, 15th August. At the funeral, we will announce some programmes for creating a fund that will assist with the education of the children,” he said. “Friday, I will announce the details of that, so that people who want to contribute to the future of the children they have left behind will have the opportunity to do so.”
President Mahama described the tragedy, which occurred in the Adansi Akrofuom District, as a “difficult calamity,” noting that many of the deceased were in the prime of their lives with significant responsibilities. He revealed that some of the victims’ children were still in school, with one as young as two months old.
“What we have to do is to work even harder in their memories, because all of them were key champions of the reset agenda that we are pursuing as a government,” the President stated. “The reset agenda must be successful in their memory so that their deaths would not have been in vain.”
“It’s a difficult calamity, because if you look at all those who died, they were at the prime of their lives and had so much responsibility, children still in school, and some even with infants as young as two months. The pilot’s child is, he has a child two months old, and these responsibilities… are what we have to take up to make sure that the absence of the parents does not adversely affect the innocent children”.
The crash claimed the lives of Defence Minister Dr Edward Omane Boamah; Minister for Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation Dr Ibrahim Murtala Muhammed; Acting Deputy National Security Coordinator Muniru Mohammed; former parliamentary candidate Samuel Aboagye; NDC Vice Chairman Samuel Sarpong; Squadron Leader Peter Bafemi Anala; Flying Officer Manin Twum-Ampadu; and Sergeant Ernest Addo Mensah.
