DEATH OF JOSEPH AGYEMAN ATTA Date: Tue, 4 Nov 2008 11:05:23 -0000

The Managing Director Suhuma Timber Company Ltd. Sefwi Wiaso

CC: The IGP

Our country Ghana has in the past not put the interests of her citizens at the centre of our national planning and because of that there is a lot of abuse that goes on behind the scenes which nobody cares to report. At the centre of our planning is the Ghanaian politicians and their families. They are in power not because they care but because the power allows them to keep abusing the citizens.

I am appalled by the raw treatment Joseph Agyeman Atta received at the hands of the company he was working for, Suhuma Timber Company Limited. I know accidents do happen at the work place but for him to have died and threshed like a corned beef should be condemned by all decent and life-loving Ghanaians. What Health and Safety Measures do they have at the company? What baffles me is the fact that where two people are operating one machine,should the other just vanish without anybody realising it? Why should the police rush in transferring the supposed remains of Atta to the family for immediate burial? I would like to know the response of the company and what sort of statement they have issued on the death of Atta? Our fore- fathers fought against the white colonial rule with their blood so that we could control our own affairs but it is sad that with our own people in the helm of affairs we are treated like ALIENS in our country. What happened to Joseph Agyeman Atta, though could happen to anybody in any part of the world but in the rest of the world, immediately it happens,the Health and Safety Ministries,Social Welfare and a lot of Government agencies would be involved to make sure it does not happen again. What have they done? They should tell me and the rest of the world what they have done so far. The next struggle we should all engage in after the up-coming elections is changing our mind set. Our attitude on some issues need a lot to be desired. How would any society in this modern era think that a river would request the life of a person just because a company has not pacified them? Are we as Ghanaians still living in the Stone Age? We should be bold to fight against all those outmoded customs and traditions that is inhibiting our national development. It is only in Ghana that a man will run away from his parental responsibilities when he has fathered a child;It is only in Ghana that Girls will still be sold to shrines as wives;It is only in Ghana that parents will give their children to go and stay with a distant relatives and would not care to know what goes on in that child's life. We are always shifting responsibilities as a nation.

How I wish we could have a mental revolution in Ghana to re-set out mind. The last time the mind watch was set was 6 March 1957. Joseph Agyeman Atta's life was a valuable as the lives of the Managing Director of that company,The IGP,The Health Minister etc.