Mr. Herbert Mensah has presented assorted food items and drinks worth ten million cedis to five separate families of the 2001 May 9 victims in a low key ceremony in Kumasi.
The former Director and Chief Executive Officer (C.E.O) of Asante Kotoko made the presentation in consonance with his annual visits to the families since the disaster.
Former Kumasi Asante Kotoko boss, Herbert Mensah in a statement on the 6th anniversary of the May 9 Stadium disaster has counselled relatives and loved ones of victims to remain strong in the belief that God continues to watch over their lost ones.
Last year on May 9th, 126 people died at the Accra Sports stadium. It was an event of tremendous shock for individuals, families, the nation and the footballing world; a day which will forever be etched in my mind. My values and my goals have changed since that tragic day. It is a day which touched the entire nation of Ghana and which the families of the deceased will never forget. We have had all our own particular views on the event and what could have been done to prevent the incident; but we can never hope to understand a tragedy so great and unnecessary as that one was.
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I attended a special inter faith service on the forecourt of the state House. The service was organised by the Government to honour and remember the dead. The event was both poignant and emotional for me and when I had to give a brief speech I could hardly contain my feelings!
A brief summary of my speech is outlined as follows;
Below is a short excerpt of Herbert’s address to the nation on 13 May 2001 after the 9th May stadium disaster in Accra. The full speech can be seen here.
FROM THE BOARDROOM
In remembrance!
Wednesday May 9th 2001
I will never ever forget this day. I still wake up at night and early in the morning and remember the afternoon rain, the match itself, the linesman’s flag, the poor officiating, the tear gas, the images of people jumping from great heights to escape the tear gas, the confusion and the stampede the injured and the dead, the club colours draped on the dead, the living and the hope.
ACCRA, Ghana — Police in Ghana are being blamed for Africa’s worst ever soccer disaster in which 126 fans died.
Survivors say they begged the police not to fire tear gas into the crowd but their pleas went unheeded.
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ACCRA, Ghana – Up to 125 people have been killed and hundreds injured in a stampede at a football stadium in Ghana. Ghana Television journalist Francisca Ashietey-Odunton told CNN that the tragedy happened at the end of a match in Accra between premier league rivals.
Herbert Mensah 