'Mills' autopsy should be part of our public records' – Akufo-Addo backs family's demand

President Nana Akufo-Addo has said the demand by the family of the late President John Evans Atta Mills for his autopsy report is a "legitimate one".

"I'll have to find out how to proceed on that, but it's a legitimate demand" the president said when the family called on him at Jubilee House to make the appeal.

"If the family wants to have [the autopsy report] of someone who died in those circumstances, it's a legitimate demand", Mr Akufo-Addo said after Mr Koku Anyidoho, the spokesperson of the late president, had informed him in the presence of Mills' family that only the late President's brother, Samuel Atta Mills, claims to have the autopsy report.

"It should be part of our official documentation and public records", President Akufo-Addo interjected.

At the meeting was the Kyidomhemaa of Ekumfi Traditional Council and Queen mother of the Odomna Family of Ekumfi Otuam and Asaman, Nanahemaa Enyimfuaa III, in the company of the Head of the Odomna Family from which the late President hails, Abusuapanin Kobina Biney.

The Kyidomhemaa said it remains a key worry of the entire maternal family of the late president that after 10 years since the professor passed away, no member of the family can mention what happened to him because none of them has sighted his autopsy report.

According to her, “it is a constant headache, that no member of the family can confidently answer the simple question of how and why the late president died and indeed, what actually killed him.”

“Till date we as family are not able to tell if the doctor had said, he broke an arm, his neck or what specific medical defect and circumstances caused his death. I, therefore, plead with you, Mr. President, on behalf of my stool and on behalf of the entire family to assist us get the autopsy report of President Mills, so that we can amply explain to the family and to our generations born and unborn, what killed President Mills and lay to rest the hazy circumstances surrounding his death.”

The family was grateful to President Akufo-Addo for restoring the dignity of the Asomdwee Park, where the former president was buried.

“The extent of neglect by those who took over from Prof Mills was so bad that Asomdwee Park became the prime location for petty drug peddlers and lunatics”, Clan head Abusuapanin Kobina Biney said.

They appealed for jobs for the youth of the area and the readiness of the traditional authorities of the area to make land available for an edifice at Ekumfi Otuam in honour of their departed relative and former President of the Republic.