President John Mahama has prayed for God’s mercy and a place in Paradise for the late Dr Ibrahim Murtala Mohammed and Alhaji Muniru Lumina, two government officials who lost their lives in the helicopter crash on August 6.

Speaking at their burial on Sunday, August 10, at the TseAddo Military Cemetery, the President said, “Today is not a day for talking, and I find it very difficult to find words to speak, and so I just say thank you and may God grant them Paradise and may the memory of them guide us too.”

The crash which occurred on Wednesday, 6th August, claimed the lives of eight people, including the two men.

On Sunday morning, their bodies were brought to the forecourt of the State House, where Islamic prayers were performed before they were laid to rest in accordance with Muslim tradition.

President Mahama expressed gratitude to the bereaved families for their patience in allowing official arrangements for the funeral rites. “I want to thank the two families for their patience. We recognise that in Islam when a person has died, they are supposed to be interned as quickly as possible,” he said.

Quoting the Quran, he reminded mourners of the blessing in attending funerals, adding, “Indeed, the Quran tells us that whoever attends the funeral of a fellow and then stays to the last end of a funeral receives blessing.”

The President also pledged to continue the government’s “reset agenda” in honour of the two men.

“I believe that they would have wanted us to continue with the hard work that we were doing with them and so in memory of them we shall continue to work very hard, to serve the people of Ghana and to ensure the success of our reset agenda so that their names will be written in gold in Paradise,” he said.

Reflecting on their personal relationship, President Mahama described the loss as deeply painful. “The two brothers, Muniru and Murtala were both personally close to me. Murtala, I mentored when he was a new MP at Nanton… one of our very bright intellectuals and very eloquent in Parliament. Muniru was like a younger brother and a permanent fixture in my house… this is a very deep personal loss for me,” he said.

“By Allah’s Grace, He would receive them in Jannat of Ridaus,” the President added.