President and Chief Executive Officer of the Institute for Security, Disaster and Emergency Studies (ISDES) Dr. Ishmael Norman has described the amount of money paid as compensation to the victims of the Ejura shooting as a joke and gross injustice.
The government has paid GH¢1.28 million in compensation to three persons who got injured in the course of the Ejura shooting incident that resulted from a demonstration by indigenes of Ejura over the murder of a social development campaigner Ibrahim Mohammed, also known as Kaaka Macho.
Per the cheques issued to the families of the victims; Louis Ayikpa received GH¢347,953, Nazif Nuhu was allotted GH¢192,425, and Awal Mesbawu GH¢678,519.
“Someone gets his leg amputated and he is given GHC 600K for life? That is barely $52K. The compensation law is not properly being applied. I believe they won’t do the same thing to an upper class person.
“For example if somebody is amputated, it doesn’t end there; at some point in his or her life is going to need new prosthetic hence given the person about $52,000 is inadequate given the average life expectancy of the Ghanaian is 63 years, therefore given a person who is about 30 years that amount is shameful” Dr. Norman stated that the compensation law is not properly applied.
He argued that if the victims were to come from the family of a politician, a government appointee or a powerful person in society they would have been treated differently.
“A lot of lawyers do not know compensation calculation and the medical doctors who are supposed to calculate the rate of injury or disability “a lot of them are in bed with the payer so they would come out with rate of disability to favor the person who is supposed to pay the money so you can’t trust them when it comes to compensations. The doctors are as corrupt as the people they represent” Dr. Norman alleges
By Samuel Afriyie Owusu|3news.com|Ghana