GMA wants Akufo-Addo, others who flouted COVID-19 protocols prosecuted

• President Akufo-Addo attended the funeral of Sir John

• He together with his ministers disregarded the COVID-19 protocols

• GMA wants the law to deal with them

President Nana Akufo-Addo, Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, Chief Justice Anin Yeboah and other top government officials who flouted the COVID-19 directive on funerals and attended the late Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie’s funeral should be prosecuted says the Ghana Medical Association (GMA).

In an uncharacteristic terse press statement dated June 7, 2021, and signed by GMA president Dr Frank Ankobia and General Secretary Dr Justice Yankson, the medical doctors only fell short of outrightly saying the President should be prosecuted.

Videos sighted online by GhanaWeb shows how President Akufo-Addo was surrounded by a crowd of excited mourners at Sakora Wonoo in the Kwabre East District of the Ashanti Region.

Vice President Bawumia who was on his way to his car was also surrounded by some crowd of mourners who were cheering him on.

Already, Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie a.k.a. Sir John, who died from COVID-19 complications last year was given preferential treatment with his body being kept for all this while; his body was kept in the morgue from July 1, 2020, till he was laid to rest at a plush tomb carefully designed and built for him near a dusty road last Friday, June 4.

Earlier this year, Archbishop Charles G. Palmer-Buckle who presided over former President Rawlings’ Requiem Mass released a video saying he was suffering from COVID-19. Rawlings died from COVID-19 yet a huge funeral was organised at Independence Square after his body had been kept for at least two months.

Foreign delegations were even invited to attend the funeral.

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo in his 23rd recorded televised address to the nation on January 31 this year, announced the reimposition of COVID-19 restrictions on public gatherings of more than 25 persons.

He noted that as unpleasant as the restrictions were, it had, over a period, resulted in a favourable situation for our country so “we have to return to them”.

“So, fellow Ghanaians, until further notice, funerals, weddings, concerts, theatrical performances, and parties are banned. Private burials with no more than twenty-five (25) people can take place, with the enforcement of the social distancing, hygiene and mask-wearing protocols.

Beaches, nightclubs, cinemas, and pubs continue to be shut. Our borders by land and sea remain closed,” Akufo-Addo instructed.

Over time, these restrictions by the President have been flouted by either himself or other government officials who one way or the other attend funerals or parties.

The GMA demands that for their efforts of caring for patients not to be in vain “the Inspector General of Police (IGP)” should “act without fear or favour in this regard”.

Watch video of the President, Vice, others at Sir John’s funeral below.