Bereaved family members of the 126 soccer fans who lost their lives in the Accra Sport Stadium Disaster of May 9, 2001, will soon be compensated. According to the Special Assistant to the Minister for Information and Presidential Affairs, Ferdinand Ayim, deliberations are ongoing to disburse the fund.

As at last October, the fund, established just after the disaster yielded ?2.8 billion. “Donations are still going on…Only last week, a group donated to the Fund,” he said. The amount, to be administered by the Disaster Relief Fund Management Committee chaired by Dr J.S. Addo, one-time Governor of the Bank of Ghana, is currently lodged in a special account at the Central Bank.

“Last October the Committee embarked on a programme of registering the surviving spouses and the children of the deceased with the view of working out modalities to disburse the money,” Ayim told the Weekend Agenda. “There is the need for a meticulous approach to the whole issue since it involves human beings and money,” he said.

According to the special Assistant, the disbursement has delayed due to a number of issues among them multiple claims of the family members. “There have been instances where two women came forward with different stories of how they gave birth or raised a child of the deceased,” he noted. He also said there have been instances where two women have come to make claims on one deceased person of the disaster.

The issues arising out of two women trying to prove who is the rightful wife or spouse of the deceased needs sometime to resolve and that is why the claims are delaying, Ayim explained. The Special Assistant said the government might not be in a position to implement all the recommendations of the Okudzeto Commission presented to President John Kufuor on November 30 because of financial constraint.

The Commission recommended among others that children of the victims should be supported through Senior Secondary School in addition to a daily wage for their upkeep.

“Children of pre-school age be supported each with the minimum daily wage,” the report said adding “to supplement the fund on a permanent basis and to commemorate the occasion of the disaster each year, the two clubs, Accra Hearts of Oak and Kumasi Asante Kotoko should play a charity soccer competition on a convenient date near May 9, at the Accra Sports Stadium for a trophy donated by the fund.

Part of the recommendations also stated that the “in case of the 54 victims who did not have any children, a one-off ex-gratia payment of ?10 million be made to the victims’ parents or accredited legal representatives of their family.” The report also asked government to contribute at least ?2 billion in the first year of the fund to supplement the capital of the fund and sustain the purpose disbursement scheme.

Ayim said government will look at the amount, the number of the affected persons and then pay out lump sums to the victims’ spouses and children or parents for them to plan their own investments instead of going strictly according to the committee’s recommendation.

Meanwhile construction work has begun at the North Wing of the Accra Sports Stadium to repair the damage to stairwells and other things that got damaged as a result of the tragedy. As soon as they are completed, The North Stand would be re-opened, according to an official at the Ministry of Youth and Sports.