Survivors' account of their ordeal

Scores of survivors and eyewitnesses of last week's disaster at the Accra Sports Stadium where about 130 people were trampled or suffocated to death have, according to Free Press, placed the blame for the debacle squarely on the police personnel.

Dozens of survivors interviewed by the paper at the 37 Military Hospital and the Ridge Hospital revealed that after the policemen on duty had pumped round after round of teargas canister into the panicking crowd, resulting in a stampede, they callously refused to go to the aid of the trampled and suffocating victims.

It was mainly due to the heroic and prompt action of some spectators and other bystanders that many lives were saved on that Black Wednesday.

Eyewitnesses revealed that after the police had fired the first round of teargas into the stands and the spectators were fleeing, those in the opposite stands realised that a stampede was happening and they rushed unto the pitch to plead with the police to stop firing the teargas but they were ignored.