June 3 disaster victims duly compensated - Ayisi

Communications Director at the National Disaster Management Organization(NADMO), George Ayisi, has refuted claims by some survivors of the June 3rd disaster that they were not compensated by the government of Ghana when they were afflicted in 2015.

He said the victims were duly compensated by the erstwhile Mahama administration with their medical bills catered for by the government.

Also, he added, the government of Ghana received a relief grant from the President of Benin that was evenly disbursed to the victims and their families.

Mr. Ayisi pointed out that in their engagement with the victims of the disaster, they told NADMO they will not accept the use of the word “compensation” if they don’t receive any aid and support from the government of Ghana. Thus their refusal to acknowledge support from the state since June 3rd, 2015.
He was speaking on the back of the sixth anniversary of the tragic incident that struck the business district of the capital, losing many lives and properties. In an interview with Berla Mundi on the New Day show on TV3, Thursday, June 3.

Mr. Ayisi said “we set up a committee to look at those issues and in fact the committee admitted some other people to be added later and were given compensation. They told us that they will not accept the use of the word compensation because it was their medical bills. But interestingly, under President Mahama, he took care of their medical bills, okay, these are facts. Their bills at the hospital and others were paid by the government, under President Mahama and then those who lost their lives, some amount of money was given to their families, GHC 10,000 per family, for those who lost their lives. 

“And then, in the grading of their injuries, between GHC 5000 and GHC 10,000 was given to people and one guy who was admitted to the 37 Military Hospital had about GHC 37,000 and even that was not enough we needed to raise additional money to go and support him, a Muslim boy who had a problem with his hair, so that’s it. The Benin government supported them through the government of Ghana and when the $200,000 came there was a committee that sat and said no, once the previous government has given them up to a 10,000, it will not be good to do anything below that, especially for people who lost their families. And so all of those people were given the rest, sometimes the challenges were, who takes the money on behalf of the families, the paternal and maternal but those were resolved by the committee and so ultimately they took the money”.