President John Dramani Mahama has announced that the Government will set up a programme for creating a fund that will assist with the education of the children of the eight victims of the August 6, 2025 helicopter tragedy.
The President made the announcement at Maaijor, near Accra, during the Islamic funeral (adua) of Alhaji Mohammed Muniru Limuna, Deputy National Security Coordinator and one of the eight victims of the helicopter tragedy.
“It’s a difficult calamity. Because if you look at all those who died, they were at the prime of their lives and had so much responsibility,” he said.
“Children still in school, and some even with infants as young as two months. The pilot’s child is two months old and these responsibilities are what we have to take up.”
The President said, to make sure that the absence of the parents do not adversely affect the innocent children, the Government would set up a Fund to support them.
He said the Government would hold a state funeral on Friday, August 15, 2025 for all the eight victims of the helicopter tragedy.
“And at the funeral we will announce a program for creating a fund that will assist with the education of their children. And so on Friday I’ll announce the details of that,” he said.
This, the President said would enable persons who want to contribute for the future of the children they had left behind would have the opportunity to do so.
“We’ve been grieving for almost a week. But we’re transitioning from grieving to accepting that what has happened is real and that it is God’s will. Sometimes we want to question why God does certain things,” he said.
“But as the Quran says in Surah Al-Baqarah, it says ‘indeed it is from him we came and it is to him we shall return’.
“The Quran too says every man shall taste of death. And so we’ve reached the stage where we accept that Allah has taken them back.”
The President eulogized Alhaji Limuna for his devotion to Allah. He described the late Alhaji Limuna as a hardworking and diligent person.
“…And for me, I say, where am I going to get a replacement for him? Because he was virtually my personal assistant. You could call Muniru at 1:00am in the night and tell him, Muniru, go to Yendi or go to Damongo. He won’t hesitate, he won’t wait till morning. He will set up that same night and go and perform the errand that you have sent him to perform,” the President said.
“When we were making appointments, his appointment was among the last. And people kept asking, why is it that AlhajiLimuna is closer to you and you have not given him an appointment yet? And I told him, when you are sharing food in the house, you serve the strangers first, before you serve the family members. So he should exercise patience.”
President Mahama said two weeks ago AlhajiLimunawas appointed as Deputy National Security Coordinator in-charge of human security.
He said the helicopter trip, during which he met his untimely death was virtually his first public assignment, where he was selected to represent National Security at the Responsible and Cooperative Mining Programme.
“He was supposed to have gone by road. And he was not a person who liked to travel by air. But the information got to him late. And so he was told there was a helicopter going and there was space for him.
“And he boarded the helicopter. And that was to be his last journey. But like we say, it is God who gives and God who takes.
“And so we have no questions for God. We accept what he has done. What we have to do is to work even harder in their memories.”
The eight distinguished Ghanaians who lost their lives while on an official duty in the August 6, 2025 military helicopter crash at AdansiAkrofuom in the Ashanti Region include; Dr Edward Kofi OmaneBoamah, Minister for Defence; AlhajiDrMurtalaMuhammed, Member of Parliament for Tamale Central and Minister for Environment, Science, and Technology.
Others are AlhajiMuniru Mohammed Limuna, Acting Deputy National Security Coordinator; Mr Samuel Sarpong, Vice Chairman of the National Democratic Congress and Mr Samuel Aboagye, Deputy Director-General of National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO).
The rest are Squadron Leader Peter Anala, Flying Officer TwumAmpadu and Sergeant Ernest Addo Mensah, all of the Ghana Air Force.
GNA
