President Akufo-Addo has constituted a 9-member Committee, to see to the organisation of the state burial for Former UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan.
The committee will be chaired by Ambassador Annan A. Cato, distinguished diplomat and former Secretary to the Cabinet.
President Akufo-Addo has announced a state burial for former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan.
[contextly_sidebar id=”Xvmq0cM5UZiI4fW9pxN3jHBfFPIR41Zc”] According to him, he took the decision to honour a great son of Ghana.
Akufo-Addo has proposed Thursday September, 13, 2018 for the burial of the statesman.
The Committee, constituted in consultation with his widow, Mrs Nane Maria Annan, his children and family of the late UN Secretary General, has the following other members:
- Cecilia Abena Dapaah, Minister for Sanitation and Water Resources
- Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, MP and Minister-designate for Information
- Ambassador Mercy Debrah Karikari, Secretary to the Cabinet
- Ambassador Ahmed Hassan, Director of State Protocol
- Samuel Kumah, Chief of Protocol at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
- Brigadier General Charles Awity, Director General, Personnel Administration of the Ghana Armed Forces
- Ambassador Patrick Hayford, Retired UN official
- Kojo Annan, Son of the late Mr. Kofi Annan
Meanwhile, Nana Mensah, Director of Protocol at the Office of the Vice President, will act as Secretary to the Organising Committee.
Kofi Annan to be buried at Military Cemetery
Kofi Annan, will be laid to rest at the new Military Cemetery at Burma Camp in Accra.
According to Akufo-Addo, that cemetery is an appropriate resting place for the renowned global peace icon.
Akufo-Addo said Kofi Annan will be the 3rd Ghanaian civilian to be buried at the cemetery after former Vice President Amissah-Arthur and statesman J.H. Mensah.
“Burma Camp has created a new cemetery and there is a portion that has been allocated for VIPs; civilian VIPs, and I think it will be the most appropriate place to lay him [Kofi Annan] to rest. That is where the former Vice President Kwesi Amissah Arthur was recently buried and also veteran statesman J.H. Mensah. [They are] the first two people to be buried there,” Akufo-Addo noted.
Government to bear funeral cost
Akufo-Addo has disclosed that, the government will hold a state burial for Kofi Annan and will bear the full cost of the event.
“This is a state funeral so the responsibility for the arrangements are that of the Ghanaian state. Your bid is to mourn but you will not have any of the financial burdens involved in organizing such a thing; that will be borne by the state of Ghana,” Akufo-Addo told Kofi Annan’s family.”
Kofi Annan dies
Kofi Annan died on Saturday, August 18, 2018, at a Hospital in the Swiss city of Bern.
He is reported to have fallen ill on his way back from South Africa (the Mandela centenary).
He was hospitalized in Geneva and later airlifted to the capital, Bern.
The 80-year old Ghanaian diplomat served as the seventh Secretary-General of the United Nations from January 1997 to December 2006.
–
By: citinewsoom.com/Ghana