Member of Parliament for Walewale, Dr. Abdul Kabiru Tiah Mahama, has called for more comprehensive support for families affected by the recent El-Wak stampede, saying that the government’s gesture of offering Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) recruitment slots may not be sufficient.
Speaking on JoyNews’ Newsfile on Saturday, Dr. Tiah Mahama described the loss of lives as tragic and said that, for the bereaved families, “unemployment is better than the loss of life.”
“With the greatest of respect, the President will have to do more. For all you know, that is someone’s only daughter, so who are you going to replace the daughter with? There must be some other form of compensation, directly to the people who have been affected,” he said.
He added that while the compensation cannot replace lives lost, it would provide solace and demonstrate that the state acknowledges and supports families in their difficult times.
His comments follow the government’s directive that families of the six applicants who died in Wednesday’s El-Wak Stadium stampede submit names of qualified relatives for automatic recruitment into the GAF.
The tragedy occurred during a mass recruitment exercise, when a sudden surge of applicants led to a deadly crush that killed six and injured many others.
During a visit to one of the bereaved families at Eyan Maim in the Central Region, Deputy Defence Minister Ernest Brogya Genfi revealed that President John Dramani Mahama had instructed that each affected family be offered an automatic slot in the Armed Forces as a gesture of support.
The Member on the Finance Committee of Parliament noted that while the slot allocation may be commendable on the part of the government, “it’s a shame for those families. They would have preferred to have their daughters be unemployed than have a job without their child.”
Dr. Abdul-Kabiru emphasised that while recruitment exercises have been imperfect in the past, there should be continuous improvements to prevent such tragedies and to ensure public confidence in government processes.
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