Fans mark May 9 Disaster in Kumasi

Hundreds of football fans, dominated by family members of victims of the infamous Accra Stadium May 9, 2001 disaster flooded some principal streets of Kumasi in the Ashanti Region last Saturday as Herbert Mensah, CEO of Asante Kotoko at the time, led a remembrance walk to mark 14 years of the dark day.

From the King Faisal FC secretariat at Aboabo —  one of the busiest hubs of Kumasi —  Mr Mensah, in the company of the current general manager of Kotoko, Samuel Opoku Nti, and some key witnesses of the ‘Black Wednesday’ clad in special May 9 polo shirts, undertook the planned two-hour walk as some sung dirges in remembrance of the 127 fans who were killed in the stampede during a league match  between Accra Hearts of Oak and Kotoko.

Mr Mensah told journalists that it was time the authorities stuck to and fully implemented the Okudjeto Commission’s report and catered for the needs of children of the deceased as promised.    

Fourteen years after the disaster, families of the victims complain that government has reneged on its promise of catering for the children and pleaded for action to be taken.

Mr Mensah, with the support of some corporate institutions, donated basic items to the families of the victims in Accra and Kumasi, while urging those who missed out to get in touch for theirs.

The former Kotoko boss insisted that the various stakeholders needed to play their respective leadership roles in ensuring that beyond showing compassion to the children, steps were taken to educate football fans to avoid a recurrence.

Opoku Nti, who participated in the annual ritual for the first time, commended Mr Mensah for his sense of compassion but warned the authorities that if much was not done, the football community could experience a worse disaster.

He said fans did not learn any lesson from the disaster because after every league match, pockets of clashes still occurred, hence much needed to be done to completely stamp out the canker.