The Ashanti Regional Security Council (REGSEC), in conjunction with the Kumasi Traditional Council (KTC) and the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA), has set up a 13-member planning committee to co-ordinate funeral arrangements for those who died in last Wednesday's Accra Sports Stadium stampede.
It is also charged with the additional responsibility of ensuring the upkeep of the injured and to mobilise funds to support the victims and their families. A statement issued by the Regional Co-ordinating Council and signed by Mr Edward Afari Gyem, the deputy Regional Co-ordinating Director in Kumasi, advised all bereaved families to contact the committee as soon as possible to enable it to work out a suitable programme for a regional mass service scheduled for May 19.
It expressed deep sense of sympathy and heartfelt condolences to the bereaved families and wished the injured speedy recovery. The May 9 incident, which claimed the lives of 126 soccer fans and caused injury to more than 50 others, occurred during a midweek soccer match between Kumasi Asante Kotoko and Accra Hearts of Oak.
This was after angry fans, who were apparently dissatisfied with a decision of the referee, began tearing up plastic seats and hurling them onto the pitch a few minutes to the end of the match, which ended 2-1 in favour of Hearts. The police, in an attempt to stop the fans from causing further damage to property, fired several volleys of teargas onto the stands that forced the fans to run to safety.
In their bid to escape, more than 100 fans were trampled upon in the resultant stampede while many others suffered various degrees of injury.
