The head of the Atta Mills family and senior brother of the late former President John Evans Atta Mills, has accused the Director of the Atta-Mills Institute, Mr Koku Anyidoho of using the 10th anniversary commemoration for selfish gains.

Mr. Cadman Atta Mills said Koku Anyidoho used the refurbishment of the Asomdwee Park, the burial place of the former President, to promote his institute and his paymasters.

According to him, Koku Anyidoho does not even know the correct spelling of the former President’s name.

“For somebody who claimed to know him very well to place hyphen between the two names, even though the person who has the name himself has never put a hyphen in that name.“

“They used this so-called refurbishment to promote themselves, to promote their institute and to promote their pay paymasters.”

Mr. Cadman Mills also stated that the family does not recognize the Institute. 

A group calling itself Atta-Mills Institute that the family doesn’t even recognize, and Coastal Development Authority, have gone to break the grave of President John Evans Atta Mills.”

“They have removed the tomb, and they claim that they are rebuilding it,” he added. 

Meanwhile, the family says it is considering legal action against the Atta Mills Institute.

“In my capacity as the oldest sibling of Prof John Evans Atta Mills, as the person who Prof Mills designated in his will to be the executor of his will and the custodian of his legacy and now in my capacity of the Ebusua Panyin, the family has decided that we will contact our solicitors to make sure that we explore all avenues to stop the Atta-Mills Institute,” he divulged.

Background

Prior to this commemoration, there was a feud between the family of the late President and Mr Anyidoho over the maintenance of Asomdwoe Park, his final resting place.

Brother of the Former President, Samuel Atta-Mills, had accused Mr Anyidoho of tampering with the grave of their kin.

“Now that you have gone to touch it, is the body still in that grave? What did you put in the grave? What kind of ritual did you perform over there? Why would you go and touch the grave without informing us? Who has the body now? And that is the question I want to ask Ghanaians. Why do you want to make us go through grief every time?”

But, Mr Anyidoho, dismissed the claims by the family.

He explained that the state was restoring the dignity of the late President’s burial grounds.

“It was just a wooden box, an ugly wooden box that was used to cover the thing by John Mahama and we have removed it and replaced it with granite stone and what is Sammy Atta-Mills saying?”

Prof Atta Mills died on Tuesday, July 24, 2012, after serving for nearly four years as President of Ghana.

He is the first President in the history of Ghana to die while in office.