Vice President Opoku-Agyemang visits five families of victims of helicopter tragedy

 Vice President Professor Naa­na Jane Opoku-Agyemang on Tuesday led a government delegation to pay a courtesy visit on the families of the five civilian victims of the August 6 helicopter tragedy.

The visit, which was on behalf of President John Dramani Mahama, who is currently on a working visit to Japan, was to comfort the wid­ows and children of the deceased persons, and to find out how they were doing.

The Vice President’s delegation visited the families of Dr Samu­el Sarpong, Vice Chairman of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and Mr Samuel Aboagye, Deputy Director-General, National Disaster management Organisation (NADMO).

The rest were the families of Alhaji Mohammed Muniru Limuna, Deputy National Security Coordina­tor in-charge of Human Security; Dr Edward Kofi Omane Boamah, Defence Minister and Alhaji Dr Ibra­him Murtala Muhammed, Minister of Environment, Science and Technol­ogy.

Members of the Vice President’s delegation included Mr Julius Debrah, Chief of Staff at the Presi­dency; Dr Valarie Sawyerr, a Senior Presidential Advisor for Governmen­tal Affairs; Mr Alex Segbefia, Chief of Staff at the Office of the Vice President and Mr Seth Terkper, Eco­nomic Advisor to the President.

The rest are Nana Oye Bampoe Addo, Deputy Chief of Staff in-charge of Finance and Administra­tion; Mr Fifi Fiavi Kwetey, General Secretary of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC); Hajia Shamima Muslim, Deputy Presiden­tial Spokesperson; Nana Yaa Jan­tuah, a Presidential Staffer and Mr Rex Omar, Presidential Staffer.

The Limuna Family expressed gratitude to the Government for the visit, stating that the visit would go a long way to strengthen and comfort them.

Hajia Shamima Muslim, a Deputy Presidential Spokesperson, speak­ing to the media at the end of the visit, said President Mahama had directed that the delegation should visit each family of the deceased persons to find out how they were doing, especially the spouses and the children.

She noted that because the Presi­dent was out of the jurisdiction, the Acting President, Vice Presi­dent Professor Opoku-Agyemang, led the delegation to pay visitations to each one of the families of the victims of the tragedy.

She said basically, the visit was also to communicate the President’s commitment to support the families through this very difficult period and to reassure them of the pledge that he had made, especially for the families with young children, who were still in school, with the announcement of the Children’s Support Fund.

Hajia Shamima Muslim announced that a lot of donations were already coming through.

She said those who might want to also visit the Government Commu­nication portals on how they could also donate to the Children’s Sup­port Fund for the various victims or the families of the nation’s fallen heroes could do so.

That, she said, was also to help the Government ensure that what­ever their fathers would have done for them, the Government would step in and do the same.

Touching on the adult children of the victims, Hajia Shamima Muslim said conversations were around on how to support their own aspira­tions; stating that it was the same commitment to them.

“So today we just came to reas­sure the families that the President is with them and will stand with them throughout this very difficult period,” she said.-GNA