Major Mahama Trust Fund Bill laid in Parliament
The Minister of Defence, Mr Dominic Nitiwul, on Tuesday laid the Major Mahama Trust Fund Bill, 2017 in Parliament.
Advertisement
When passed, the bill will give legal backing to the establishment of a fund to cater for the wife and two children of the soldier who was murdered at Denkyira Obuasi in the Central Region in May 2017.
Major Maxwell Adam Mahama was in the area as part of operations to clamp down on illegal mining, known as 'galamsey'.
He was murdered on the rank of a Captain and was posthumously promoted to the rank of Major.
He died at the age of 32.
Some of the suspected murderers are facing trial in the courts.
Denkyira Obuasi has now been renamed New Obuasi to give it a new brand.
Memorandum
According to a memorandum accompanying the bill, its object was to cater adequately for the wife and children of the late Major Mahama, an officer of the Fifth Infantry Battalion of the Ghana Armed Forces who was lynched by a mob at Denkyira Obuasi on May 29, 2017.
It said President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo pledged to establish a Memorial Trust Fund with a seed amount of GH¢500,000 in honour of the deceased officer.
"To give effect to His Excellency's vision and commitment towards the welfare of the deceased soldier's young widow, Mrs Barbara Mahama, and his young children, Jaden Mahama and Jeremiah Boressah Mahama, it has become necessary to draft this bill, considering the circumstances under which the officer died while on national duty," it said.
The memorandum said the fund would cater adequately for the widow until she remarried and also cater adequately for the children.
Therefore, it said, the bill would ensure that all money intended for the welfare and upkeep generally and particularly the education of the children was properly administered by a board of trustees who had a fiduciary relationship with the beneficiaries of the fund and the country.
The Speaker, Professor Aaron Mike Oquaye, referred the bill to the Finance Committee and the Committee on Defence and Interior for consideration and report.
Minister on the fund
Giving details of the bill in an interview with journalists, Mr Nitiwul said when Major Mahama was murdered, the government promised to establish a trust fund to cater for his wife and his children.
He said the ministry had been working through the months to draft the bill and indicated that Cabinet had approved it to get the fund established.
He said the Attorney-General was of the view that the only way to get the fund, which would use public funds, established was to get parliamentary approval.
"The bill will ultimately become a law and the President will accent to it for us to get that trust fund established in Major Mahama’s name.
"The fund is essentially his fund; it is not meant to do any other thing. The object of the fund is to take care of his assigns and their welfare and nothing more, nothing less," Mr Nitiwul said.
Fund management
The fund will have trustees to be headed by the Minister of Defence and four other members, including the Chairman and the Ranking Member of the Defence and Interior Committee of Parliament, a former Government Statistician, Madam Grace Bediako, and a representative of Major Mahama’s family.
Mr Nitiwul said the trustees would go out to source for private money into the fund, but indicated that "until then, we will be relying on public funds”.
"We want to get this bill passed as soon as possible. We presume that before the end of the month, we should be able to get it passed," he said.