A football stadium is to be built by the government in remembrance of the seven young footballers who lost their lives after the minibus they were travelling in crashed into the Offin River last month.
In an address at the funeral of four of the seven today at Offinso, the Minister of Youth and Sports, Isaac Kwame Asiamah said the stadium which was proposed by the President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo is to immortalise the youngsters and serve as a constant reminder that the incident would never be repeated.
The Minister said he was confident that the facility when completed will serve as a boost to youth football in Offinso after the devastating blow of losing such talented football players in the Saturday, September 19, 2020 motor accident.
“God knows best even though we can’t understand what happened. What we can do is to use it as a teachable moment in our history and learn lessons from it,” Mr Asiamah said.
“What the boys wanted was to become world-class footballers, so what can we do to honour their lives? The President wants them to be remembered forever. We can use this unfortunate incident to improve football development in Offinso.
“The President says I should inform you that the government will construct an ultra-modern stadium at Offinso. The stadium will also have a memorial with the images of the seven players. Their mark of excellence would be celebrated forever and ever”.
Government offered One Hundred Thousand Ghana Cedis (GHS 100,000.00) to cover the cost of funeral including coffins as well as payment of GHS 2000.00 each to the 37 families of the victims (injured and deceased).
The seven boys, namely, Ofori Amanfo Ramsey, Alex Agyemang, Antwi Richmond, Abdulai Jamal, Hubert Anaba, Boakye Samuel and Kwame Opoku were on their way back from a juvenile screening exercise at a registration centre at Afrancho, near Kumasi in the Ashanti Region when they were involved in the accident. They were aged between 12 and 15 years.
The bodies of Anaaba, Jamal, Opoku and Agyemang were laid in state at yesterday’s sombre funeral ceremony with their coffins were propped up on folding chairs and draped in GFA flags.
Also in attendance were scores of mourners including their families, the Director-General of the National Sports Authority Professor Peter Twumasi and a GFA delegation led by its Vice President Mark Addo.
Others included GFA Executive Council members Frederick Acheampong and Madam Habiba Atta Forson, the Chairman of the Ashanti Regional Football Association Osei Tutu Agyemang, Aminu Abdullai (Kamarat), President of Asokwa Deportivo and Executives of the Regional and District Football Association.
by GRAPHIC ONLINE