{"id":89150,"date":"2025-08-11T04:38:00","date_gmt":"2025-08-11T04:38:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=89150"},"modified":"2025-08-11T04:38:00","modified_gmt":"2025-08-11T04:38:00","slug":"god-does-not-take-innocent-lives-tony-aidoo-demands-action-after-helicopter-crash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=89150","title":{"rendered":"God does not take innocent lives \u2013 Tony Aidoo demands action after helicopter crash"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Former Senior Presidential Aide and former Ambassador to the Netherlands, Dr. Tony Aidoo, has described the deaths of eight people in last Wednesday\u2019s helicopter crash as \u201cavoidable.\u201d<\/p>\n

The crash, which killed two cabinet ministers and six others, occurred while they were travelling to the launch of a government initiative to end illegal mining, known as galamsey. <\/p>\n

Among the dead were Defence Minister Dr. Edward Omane Boamah, former parliamentary candidate Samuel Aboagye, National Democratic Congress (NDC) Vice Chairman Dr. Samuel Sarpong, and three crew members \u2014 Squadron Leader Peter Bafemi Anala, Flying Officer Manin Twum-Ampadu, and Sergeant Ernest Addo Mensah.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo be frank, I had a personal connection with only three of the unfortunate victims\u2026 Anytime I remember the departed\u2026 usually with teary eyes, but I am not here to eulogise nor to pay another apologetic tribute,\u201d Dr. Aidoo said on Newsfile<\/em> on Saturday, August 9. <\/p>\n

\u201cMine will be a very tiny voice among the worldwide tributes, lamentations and eulogies that have come following the avoidable, I say avoidable, national tragedy.\u201d<\/p>\n

He questioned why the victims were in the air in the first place. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhy were they in the air? They were in the air because they were going to fight galamsey,\u201d he said. \u201cPresident Mahama must kill the galamsey menace before it ends his members [of cabinet].\u201d<\/p>\n

Rejecting the view that the tragedy was an act of God, Dr. Aidoo stressed: \u201cPeople will say \u2018oh the Lord gave us and the Lord takes\u2019, I say that God did not take, it was we who gave\u2026 by our mistake of an avoidable death.\u201d <\/p>\n

He added, \u201cGod gives, yes, but God does not take innocent lives. People die by their own destruction or by lifestyle.\u201d<\/p>\n

He revealed that his first reaction after confirmation of the deaths was to send a message to President Mahama: \u201cThese eight patriotic souls lost their lives in the fight against galamsey. So for God\u2019s sake, Mr. President, don\u2019t let them die in vain. Stop the galamsey now. That\u2019s the best tribute we can say to these patriotic deaths.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"DrFormer Senior Presidential Aide and former Ambassador to the Netherlands, Dr. Tony Aidoo, has described the deaths of eight people in last Wednesday\u2019s helicopter crash as \u201cavoidable.\u201d<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_2277560469115098_106292521332774":"","twitter_aToxNzczMzI3Njk4OTg4ODUxMjAxOw==_1773327698988851200":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6278,5955,1969,1883,10,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-89150","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dr-tony-aidoo","category-helicopter-crash","category-hp-news-3","category-national","category-politics","category-popular"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89150","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=89150"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89150\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=89150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=89150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=89150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}