Let’s preserve the legacy of Professor Allotey - EPA boss

Mr Peter Abum Sarkodie, Executive Director of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has urged Government and academia to team up and establish a Foundation to preserve the legacy of the late Professor Francis Kofi Ampenyin Allotey, the renowned scientist.

He said such a Foundation could serve as a monument that would help honour and uphold the legacy of the avid professor, whose peaceful death occurred in Accra on November 2, 2017 at the age of 85.

Prof Allotey would be buried on Saturday at his home town, Saltpond, after a pre-burial state service at the forecourt of the State House on Friday.

“I believe that his achievement in the academics cannot be paralleled by any of us in the contemporary Ghanaian society” Mr Sarkodie noted, in a glowing tribute to the late Professor.

He said the late Professor left a huge legacy, which needed to be protected and preserved through the setting up of an Allotey’s Foundation to help “sustain his name and the good works, so that his great achievements could be emulated by the up and coming generation.”

Speaking in an interview with the GNA in Accra, on Thursday, Mr Sarkodie said the Professor was one of his mentors as a science student, way back in Secondary school.

“The late Professor Allotey was one of my mentors in the sciences. I offered science, so some of us were inspired by his achievements in physics and mathematics.

“And then when I was in KNUST doing my masters in environmental chemistry, again, Professor Allotey was there.

“So in the area of Sciences, Prof Allotey had been our mentor. Even in those good old days we were hearing of a certain constant, ‘Allotey’ Constant’, and we were very proud as Ghanaians to have somebody, a Ghanaian Scientist, who had come out with such scientific laurels in the likes of Albert Einstein, Max Planck and the rest.

“We are looking at his works to make sure that we strive to achieve more laurels in respect to the sciences, so we only pray for God to give him a very good resting place, Mr Sarkodie stated.

“I believe that we can continue to do more in the area of science so that we can produce more of the Alloteys in Ghana for the economics and technological development of the country.

“I wish to say that may his soul should rest in perfect peace and we will always remember him”.

On her part, Mrs Angelina Ama Tutua Mensah, Director and Head of Public Relations of EPA, recounted her relationship with the late Professor, saying: “I met Professor Allotey almost 29-30 years ago and my first impression about him was a very humble simple man.

“This is the man who had the accolade, Allotey’s Constance, because he came up with this mathematics formula.

“People did not know this, but he also played a key in gender issues. He was really on it.

“He was also into communicating religion and mathematics to seminaries. So I met him on a platform where he shared religion mathematics to the Spiritan Institute of Philosophy, in Ejisu, Kumasi, and was very simple, we all slept at the seminary, he did not complain about the food we were eating.

He was also doing a lot with the EPA at a point in time because of the Atomic Energy.”

Mrs Mensah narrated that the Late Professor’s deceased wife, Aunty Esi Allotey, was one of the pioneers of the Senior Women’s Advisory Group to UNEP on Gender issues.

“So they formed the Ghana chapter, and they actually spearheaded a lot of work, if you see the trees that have been planted around the Ministries and the Burma Camp, they did it with Dr Kwamina Ahwoi and General Arnold Quainoo, Mrs Mensah told to the GNA.