Family of helicopter crash victim challenges him
The family of the late Victor Adu-Nyarko, a male nurse who died in a military helicopter crash four years ago, has challenged the defence minister’s explanation for delayed compensation.
Dr. Kwame Addo Kufuor told Parliament that the family had not presented any letters of administration on the estate of the deceased. However, the Adu-Nyarko family says this is not true.
The defence minister, Kwame Addo Kufuor, told parliament that his office was yet to receive a letter of administration authorizing the ministry to deal with the next of kin of the deceased.
“The person claiming the compensation must produce letters of administration in respect of the deceased estate. A court of competent jurisdiction must grant these documents,” Dr. Addo Kufuor said.
But the family of the late Victor Adu-Nyarko disputes the minister’s statement. An uncle of the deceased, George Ohene-Nkansah, walked into the offices of Joy FM clutching a thick file containing documents. They included letters of administration, which he claimed were obtained on the 14th of January 2004. But, he said they never had the opportunity to discuss such matters with the defence minister.
“There has being several interactions with members of the family and interaction with other members of the armed forces has being made available to the family”.
Mr. Ohene-Nkansah described his late nephew as the breadwinner of the family and said he was taking care of his ailing father at the time of his death. He also pointed out that Victor was ordered to accompany two accident victims on the helicopter to Accra.
“Nobody has approach us yet. The first day the incident happened, the Defence Minister came there and consoled the bereaved family and gave us an amount of 20 million and that was all. Even when we performed the funeral rites the Minister himself was not even with us. We rather did the follow ups.”
So, for the past four years the family has been knocking at the doors of the defence ministry, the health ministry, the attorney general’s department, the labour commission.
