Executives of the ever-powerful Musical Chapter ‘O’ of Accra Hearts of Oak- the most vociferous support wing of the Phobians- have told Finder Sports that they have activities in line to mark the eleventh anniversary of the May 9 stadium disaster which occurred at the Accra Sports Stadium.
Regarded as Africa’s worst stadium disaster, the May 9 tragedy claimed over 127 lives when Hearts of Oak met and beat sworn rivals Asante Kotoko in a league clash.
Aziz Haruna Futah, an executive of Chapter ‘O’ and a board member of Hearts of Oak, told Finder Sports that a special prayer session would be held at the Nima Mosque with dignitaries like the national Chief Imam in attendance.
After the prayer session, there will be a procession to the Accra Stadium where members of Chapter ‘O’ will sing and drum in remembrance of their colleagues who died supporting the game they loved best.
Hearts of Oak scored two late goals to defeat Kotoko 2-1 which led to disappointed Kotoko fans throwing plastic seats and bottles onto the pitch. response to this crowd disturbance from the police was to fire tear gas into Crowd panic ensued and a resulting stampede led to the deaths from compressive asphyxia of 127 people.
Reports claimed that medical staff had already left the stadium, as the incident happened at the end of the match. Some gates were locked, preventing escape. Six police officers were charged with 127 counts of manslaughter afterwards. As a result of that, on May 9 each year, Ghanaian football lovers remember what happened on that day. Measures are put in place to prevent such a hideous event happening again.
