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Inscription on Atta Mills bust offensive – Haruna Iddrisu on Asomdwee Park monument
The Minority Leader has said that it is offensive that a bust unveiled to honour the memory of the late John Atta Mills’ 10-year anniversary of death does not bear his own name.
Haruna Iddrisu, addressing the press at Parliament, said it was disappointing to see the new bust bearing the names of President Akufo-Addo and Koku Anyidoho and not that of the late President.
Citing the monument of Dr Kwame Nkrumah, the Tamale South legislator said the statue of Ghana’s first President bears his name and nobody else.
As such, it is unacceptable for a sculpture honoring a particular person not to have his name but that of the person who unveiled it and other supporting parties.
“The bust of him, John Evans Atta Mills, our respected President, beneath the bust is not his name. It is that of President Akufo-Addo and that is not his [Atta Mills’] name and we find that incredibly unacceptable and offensive,” he fumed on Monday.
Mr Iddrisu subsequently tasked government to immediately correct the inscription on the bust by removing the names of President Akufo-Addo and Koku Anyidoho.
The Tamale South legislator warned that had it not been for the peaceful nature of the former President, he would have gone there and removed the inscription himself.
“The President and his associates must take immediate steps to go and correct that wrong and that anomaly.
“We find it incredibly unacceptable and incredibly offensive but for the peaceful nature of the late John Mills, I would have just walked there and changed it myself. But that will not be in honour of the late J. E. A. Mills and I learned peace from him,” he noted.
According to him, the change is necessary to educate people who do not know about the peaceful and patriotic former leader.
“Persons who visit the Asomdwee Park must know that it’s the final resting place of the late John Evans Atta Mills who passed on in office and to his eternal memory, this bust has been mounted.
“How then, can any of you explain that just beneath the bust you will see who unveiled it and who supported it? If the change is not done, people will refer to him [Atta Mills] as Unveiled By,” he teased.
This is the latest controversy surrounding the celebration of the 10th anniversary of the former President’s death.
Prior to this commemoration, there was a feud between the family of the late President and Mr Anyidoho over the maintenance of Asomdwee Park, his final resting place.
Brother of the Former President, Samuel Atta-Mills, had accused the Mr Anyidoho of tampering with the grave of their kin.
“Now that you have gone to touch it, is the bother still in that grave? What did you put in the grave? What kind of ritual did you perform over there? Why would you go and touch the grave without informing us? Who has the body now? And that is the question I want to ask Ghanaians. Do you want to make us go through grief every time?”
But, Mr Anyidoho, dismissed the claims by the family.
Source: www.myjoyonline.com/
The Member of Parliament for Nsawam Adoagyiri, Frank Annoh Dompreh, has expressed concern over delays in the release of the District Assemblies Common Fund, warning that the situation is stalling development across the country.
On his facebook page, he described as a matter of urgent national importance, the Minority Chief Whip pointed to what he sees as a growing crisis of unpaid contractors, abandoned projects, and halted infrastructure works in many districts.
He noted that several communities are grappling with half completed schools, unfinished health facilities, abandoned markets, deteriorating roads, and stalled sanitation projects.
According to him, many contractors who have executed projects for district assemblies have not been paid, forcing some construction firms to demobilise from sites while workers lose their jobs.
He stressed that the District Assemblies Common Fund is not a discretionary allocation but a constitutional requirement under Article 252 of the 1992 Constitution, intended to support development at the local level.
In his view, years of delayed releases and accumulated arrears have weakened district development financing and disrupted projects meant to improve living conditions in communities.
He further argued that some payments made in recent years were largely the settlement of old debts rather than funding for new or ongoing projects, a situation he believes has affected contractor confidence and local economic activity.
He described the issue as more than a budgetary challenge, characterising it as a development emergency and a governance concern.
He therefore urged the appropriate authorities to pay outstanding DACF arrears, settle contractors who have completed their work, and ensure that transfers to districts are automatic and predictable.
He maintained that decentralisation can only succeed when district assemblies receive adequate and timely funding to carry out development projects.
He emphasised that stalled projects directly affect ordinary citizens, since they rely on such infrastructure for education, healthcare, transportation, sanitation, and economic activities.
He called for renewed attention to grassroots development, insisting that national progress should not be concentrated only in major cities but extended to all communities.
By: Jacob Aggrey
Richard Appiah, the footballer who killed two children and stored part of their bodies in a fridge at Abesim in the Bono Region in 2021 has been handed a lifetime sentence.
This was after a five member panel of judges at the Accra High Court returned a verdict of guilty against the convict.
Appiah, 32, also a draughtsman would spend the rest of his life in prison after he was convicted of murder.
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BY MALIK SULLEMANA
