Security analyst and retired military officer, Col. Festus Aboagye, has criticised Ghana’s emergency response systems.
He highlighted a failure to preserve dignity in the handling of victims of national disasters.
Speaking on Newsfile on Saturday, August 9, in the wake of the August 6 military helicopter crash that claimed eight lives – including Defence Minister Dr. Edward Omane Boamah and Environment Minister Ibrahim Murtala Mohammed – Col. Aboagye lamented the country’s approach to disaster management.
He pointed to the 2022 Appiatse explosion as a vivid example of poor emergency handling.
In the wake of the helicopter crash, the security analyst questioned how victims were transported in cocoa sacks instead of with proper arrangements, such as body bags.
“I am saying that for the purposes of dignity, somebody, national security, could have told his principals that we have secured the bodies, the remains. Can you please make available some decent material? I mean, assuming that they were in the sacks and they were covered with polythene, that would even have been fine.
But if you live this life with all the service that you are doing to your nation, and you are carried in cocoa sacks… You see what I mean? Is that how we treat the gone? Those who are leaving us,” he asked.
Col. Aboagye stressed the need for a cohesive national emergency response mechanism that prioritises both operational efficiency and the dignity of those affected.
“If any of us can imagine that before those pictures were taken off the screen, one of the children of these eight saw their father being carried in a cocoa sack, how would that child feel. It’s like you have wasted your time serving your country,” he added.
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