Written by Chief Ebrima B Manneh Friday, 09 September 2005 Kwabena Baah-Duodu, the director of Africa and Africa Union Desk at the Ghanaian Foreign Affairs Ministry, has said that four out of eight corpses found at Brufut, have been identified as Ghanaians.
Mr Kwabena Baah-Duodu made this revelation during an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) published in the yesterday’s edition of the Daily Graphic newspaper. He said Ghana has the confidence that the Gambian authorities will get to the bottom of the matter and that they are waiting on The Gambia’s final submissions.
Mr Kwabena Baah-Duodu said the Ghana Embassy in Senegal was compiling the names of Ghanaians to ascertain the entire list of those who boarded the boat on the night of the accident.
A total of 54 people were reported to have boarded the boat, with a promise to be ferried to Europe. He said Ghana was seeking the support of other countries whose nationals were involved, namely Senegal, Togo, Nigeria and Cote d’Ivoire, to push for the case to be investigated to its logical conclusion.
Nana Dankwa Akufo-Addo, the Ghanaian Foreign Affairs minister who recently visited The Gambia in the wake of the discovery of some corpses alleged to be Ghanaians, at Brufut, has explained to the Ghanaian public that the figure was 8, not 13, as had been reported earlier on by the Ghanaian press.
He also made this clarification at a news conference held in Accra recently.
Meanwhile, Nana Akufo-Addo said during a meeting with the Gambian authorities, it was confirmed that “only eight bodies were found and not 13 as reported earlier. The Gambian figure was confirmed by the Ghanaian community in Ghana town as the right number and photographs of the deceased were also shown to us,” the minister added.
Narrating the outcome of the meetings of the delegation held with the authorities in The Gambia, the Ghanaian Foreign Minister said 56 West Africans, comprising 42 Ghanaians, 10 Nigerians and 2 Senegalese, a half Ghanaian and half Ivorian woman and a Togolese, had been made to believe that there was a ship on the high seas off the Gambian coast to transport them to Europe and, as a result, paid various sums ranging from 1,300 to 1,500 euros to one Ghanaian called Mr Kofie alias Connection Man.
According to Mr Akufo-Addo, it was revealed to him by the Gambian secretary of state for Foreign Affairs that 112 people of different nationalities were detained in connection with the killings, adding that “ they had been interrogated and released with only some few still in police cells.”
Nana Akufo- Addo said “those leaders of a large group who led the enterprise onto Gambian soil have vanished and no one has made contact with them.”
When the news about the incident broke in Ghana, the president, Mr JA Kuffour, sent a high-powered government delegation to The Gambia, led by the Foreign minister and accompanied by director of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), Mr David Asante-Apeatu, among other officials from the ministry, to ascertain the facts and circumstances leading to the deaths and inform the Gambian authorities at the highest level of his concern and anxiety for the safety of other Ghanaians.
According to the Daily Graphic, the most popular newspaper in Ghana, the victims were among 42 Ghanaians who together with some other West African nationals, were on transit in The Gambia to Europe when the incident happened.
Last Updated ( Thursday, 08 September 2005 )
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