Release Mills' cause of death to kill rumours - AFAG

Pressure group, Alliance for Accountable Governance (AFAG), has supported the call for a public revelation of the circumstances surrounding the demise of the late President J.E.A. Mills.
 
According to AFAG, it will be wrong for the state to bury the late president without a confirmed report of the cause of death.
 
The New Patriotic Party (NPP) has been at the forefront in requesting the state and the family to make the cause of death of President Mills available to Ghanaians.
 
Brother of the late President, Dr. Cadman Mills had earlier told XYZ News that the family is not alarmed at the cause of the death after the postmortem was conducted. He added that the cause of death is not for public consumption and that it was a private matter and must be exclusive to the family..
 
The Chairman of the Funeral Planning Committee, Mr Totobi Kwakye, also stated during a press briefing on Friday that a coroner’s inquest was not necessary in the case of the death of President Mills because he died at the 37 Military Hospital and in the hands of competent doctors.
 
But in a statement released on Tuesday, AFAG said “this view goes contrary to the state of the country’s law, which makes it mandatory for a coroner to look into the death of a person who dies not in a hospital or within 24 hours of being brought to a hospital. The late President’s death falls within this category.”
 
The pressure group with affinity towards the main opposition NPP said, judging by the “ preponderance of public sentiment, the vast majority of Ghanaians are of the view that the cause of the death of our late President is a serious public interest issue and the public must be told before his burial at the weekend.”
 
AFAG accused the government of trying to conceal the chain of events leading up the president’s demise, which according to the group, is reminiscent of how the late president’s health status was handled.
 
“The death of President Mills should not be treated as a private or family matter. He was the Head of State of this country, as such, a public holiday has been declared on the day of his funeral in honour of this important fact.”
 
The group said, government should make the cause of death public in order to “quench” all the speculations around the incident.
 
Meanwhile, President Mills will be buried close to the Osu Castle after a three-day burial ceremony that will commence on Wednesday.