Parliament okays late Major Mahama Memorial Trust Fund Bill

Parliament has given a legal backing for the establishment of a fund to cater for the wife and two children of Major Maxwell Adam Mahama with the passage of the Major Mahama Trust Fund Bill, 2017.

Parliamentary correspondent for Rainbow Radio, Naa Darkua Dodoo in her report said the bill would ensure that all money intended for the welfare and upkeep generally, and particularly the education of the children were properly administered by a Board of Trustees who had a fiduciary relationship with the beneficiaries of the fund and the country.

The fund she indicated would have trustees to be headed by the Minister of Defence and four other members, including the Chairman and the Ranking Member of the Defence and Interior Committee of Parliament, the Ranking Member on the Defence and Interior Committee of Parliament, a former Government Statistician, Madam Grace Bediako and a representative from his family.

In an interview with the media after the bill was passed, Defence Minister Dominic Nitiwul, said the establishment of the fund sent a signal that if people sacrificed for the country, their contributions would be acknowledged by the state.

According to him, with the passage of the Bill into an Act, the President would, within a short while, accent to the Act to become a law.

Major Mahama, an officer of the 5th Infantry Battalion of the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF), was lynched by a mob at Denkyira Obuasi on May 29, 2017, while on detachment duties. He was in the area as part of an operation to clamp down on illegal mining known as 'galamsey'.