Reveals names, roles played by medical team, bodyguards & aides including Koku Anyidoho at 37 Military Hospital
Kwame Asamoah Tenkorang, a former Ghana’s High Commissioner to Kenya, also rubbished claims that the dying President, was conveyed to the 37 Military Hospital in the bucket of a pick-up truck, suggesting that to be an insult to the medical team at the 37 Military Hospital, led by Dr Clifford Lamptey and Dr. Kpornyoh and several Orderlies from that hospital.
He strikingly mentioned the name of Koku Anyidoho, President Mills’ Communications Director, as the one who approached him and pointed to the medical ward “where the lifeless body of the mighty President of the Republic of Ghana” laid to him when he rushed to the 37 Military Hospital upon hearing the news of the “Old Man’s” death.
Coincidentally, Mr. Anyidoho, has been in the forefront of the recent demand for an inquest into the death of President John Mills, 10 years after he was laid to rest.
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Mr. Tenkorang, also categorically stated that it is untrue that when the late president was brought to the 37 Military Hospital, he was mistakenly sent to the Maternity Ward.
Mr. Tenkorang, who made these known in an article titled “The President’s men and when Atta Mills died,” in an excerpt of a yet to be released book, appears to have settled the matter of the President’s death, as his account ties into that of Samuel Atta Mills that the family knows the cause of his death.
His comment comes after four members of the Majority in Parliament led by Majority Chief Whip, Frank Annoh-Dompreh, filed a Private Member’s motion calling for a bi-partisan investigation into the death of the late President’s death.
The group wants Parliament to constitute a committee “to unravel the unending mystery surrounding the death of late President Mills which sad event occurred on July 24, 2012.”
But according to Mr Mills, the actions by the Majority over the death of his brother, is unnecessary as the family is already aware of what killed his brother.
“It is not necessary; we know what caused Mills’ death. I have a copy of the autopsy report. It was done at the 37 Military Hospital, why do you always want to play politics with my brother’s death? Every year, they want to remind us of our hurt, why can’t you let sleeping dogs lie? They should be ashamed of themselves.
He stated that, Ghanaians did not vote for the MPs to come and seek a probe into the death of Atta Mills but rather to deal with the bread-and-butter
“People voted for them to come to power and do what is right and change their lives but they are rather concentrated on my brother’s death. Some of us are very quiet in parliament because we have the wisdom, we think before we open our mouths,” the Komenda Edina Eguafo Abirem (KEEA) Member of Parliament (MP) told Accra-based Asempa FM’s Ekosii Sen last Thursday that, there are no good intentions behind the latest call.
Samuel Atta Mills, brother of the late Prof John Evans Atta Mills, has questioned why four New Patriotic Party MPs are demanding a bi-partisan investigation into the death of the late President.
He is of the view that, since the demise of his late brother, the NPP MPs have constantly been using that just to gain political capital.
According to myjoyonline.com, Tenkorang’s article is one of many published in the Journal of the Council of Foreign Relations-Ghana, “The Baobab.”
Recounting the events that happened on Tuesday, July 24, 2012, and how he heard the news of the passing of the former president, Kwame Tenkorang wondered how it was that people rumoured such unbelievable things.
He said he was with a friend, deep in a conversation when he received a call from someone he only describes as ‘our brother,’ jolting him into the reality that had just dawned on the entire nation.
“We were in the midst of our long conversation when my phone rang around two o’clock. The call was from Our Brother, who was not in the habit of calling me.
‘The Oldman is gone’, he blurted out without ceremony. I naively asked, gone where? He just quickly told me, ‘we are all at 37 right now.’ That was when I understood his message and the earlier one of Uncle Bebs, and the shockwaves that it sent to my face must have been so visible that Roy, my visitor, asked me if everything was alright.
“Somehow, I managed to inform him that everything was all right, but I needed to step out immediately.
He knew something was amiss since he had never seen that face before in that shocking mood. All the same, we rushed out and Steven, my driver , drove me straight to the 37 Military Hospital. When I got to the VIP Ward, I saw all the bodyguards and Medical Orderlies gathered there.
“There were also Mr Koku Anyidoho, the Communications Director, Our Brother, Auntie Maud, Angola, Akakpo and others I cannot recall, all gathered and wailing,” he wrote.
Kwame Tenkorang further clarified how the late president got to the hospital, as well as the medical staff who attended to him.
“I was going to join them where they were gathered but Koku approached me and pointed me to the ward. There lay the lifeless body of the mighty President of the Republic of Ghana. The doctor present confirmed the news that was already going viral that our dear President had joined the angels above on his journey home. When the doctor left me alone in the room, my first instinct was to take a picture of my lifeless body.
However, my better judgement decided otherwise when I questioned why I should do that. For how long would I be able to look at the picture? And to what end? Wouldn’t it be better to keep the image of the smiling, gentle President John Evans Atta Mills as I knew him than to have on me the image of his gloomy hour of death?
“All this while my phone had not ceased ringing from all corners of the world – from Ghana, from diplomats resident here who wanted to show their home governments how efficient they were at sniffing the most confidential information by reporting before the news networks started, Ghanaian diplomats abroad who were being pestered for confirmation of the news of the alleged passing away of the President, and many others.
In all this time of extreme sorrow for some of us, it became a source of great pain that some people, for political reasons, started a very callous campaign, alleging that it was a pick-up that carried the President from the Castle to 37 and landed him in the Maternity Ward.
How could that be, when the medical team in charge of the President were drafted from the 37 Military Hospital, led by Dr. Clifford Lamptey and included Dr. Kpornyoh and several Orderlies from 37, some of whom were on duty and accompanied the dying President to the hospital? Could the staff of 37 miss their way and end up at the maternity ward? How?” he quizzed.
According to Samuel Atta Mills, the NPP MPs should rather focus on addressing issues bothering the country, among others; the UTAG strike and the demands by the aggrieved National Builders Corps (NABCo) instead of dragging his brother’s death into politics. “It’s bad news. Why are they trying to cry more than the bereaved?
Annoh-Dompreh is someone I used to respect a lot, he shouldn’t make me change my perception about him. Why is it that every year they want to remember Nana Yaw [late President Evans Atta Mills]?
… People are suffering in this country, workers are going on strike, UTAG is on strike, all kinds of problems. Is this what Annoh-Dompreh could think of? Every year they are using Prof. Mills’ death for politics,” he stated and revealed that President Mills died in his arms.
According to Davis AnsahOpoku, alias “OPK”, the Member of Parliament for Mpraeso in the Eastern Region and Yves Nii Noi Hanson-Nortey, the Member of Parliament for Tema Central in the Greater Accra Region asked that their names be expunge “as co-sponsors of the said motion”.
In a memo dated today, 18th February 2022 and addressed to the Majority Leader and Minister of Parliament Affairs, Osei Kyei Mensah Bonsu, the two first time MPs said “our attention has been drawn to a private members motion inviting the Honorable House to constitute a bi-partisan committee to investigate the circumstances that led to the demise of the late President Mills.
The said private member motion purportedly suggests that we, Hon. Davis Ansah Opoku, M.P., Mpraeso; and Yves Nii Noi Hanson-Nortey, M.P., Tema Central, are part of the sponsor of the motion.
They revealed that “though we are aware of a broader discussion on the motion, we are unaware of any such motion being filed under our instruction and in our names”.
“We, therefore, call on your high office to expunge our names as co-sponsors of the said motion”, the two MPs.
Samuel Atta Mills is the second brother of the late President to have spoken about his family’s knowledge of the cause of his death.
Though the cause of his death was not released, Atta-Mills had reportedly been battling throat cancer, and in the days leading up to his death, had been in the US for some medical attention.
His office announced that Atta-Mills, died hours after being taken ill. Mills’ brother, Dr. Cadman Mills, later disclosed that he had died from complications of a massive hemorrhagic stroke resulting from a brain aneurysm.
Ex-President John Dramani Mahama, recently announced that he was informed of President Mills’ death by John Henry Martey Newman and Bebaako Mensah, who served as Chief of Staff and Secretary to President Mills, respectively, while going about certain responsibility given him by President Mills.
