Ghana Mission in Paris Denies Reports

THE EMBASSY OF GHANA IN PARIS DISPELS RUMOURS THAT A GHANAIAN WAS A VICTIM OF THE PARIS TERRORIST ATTACKS

Press Release 

Mrs Johanna Svanikier, Ghana's Ambassador to France

Paris, France - The Ghanaian Embassy in France set out to investigate rumours that a Ghanaian died at the Stade de France in a stampede following the terrorist attacks in Paris last Friday.

The allegation first came to the attention of the Mission in Paris when various individuals called the Embassy claiming that they had the information from credible sources.

 It was also widely circulated on social media and rumoured among members of the Ghanaian community.

Officials of the Embassy immediately consulted the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs to make enquiries whether there was a record of Otis Nuako the alleged deceased being among the victims of the Paris attacks.

They indicated that they had no record of him or any Ghanaian being victim to the attacks. Further enquiries revealed that there was only one victim killed by the explosions outside the national stadium - a middle-aged white man.

Upon enquiries, the police station at St Denis, the suburb where the young man was alleged to have died, knew nothing of the case. Circumstances leading to the alleged death of the late Otis Nuako, who it is alleged was found lying unconscious in a street in Saint Denis not far from the national stadium, are still unclear.

Following a visit to his home by Embassy officials, Mr. Ahenkan a member of the Ghanaian community in Paris, indicated that he was the father of the alleged deceased.

He informed officials from the Mission that his son was a French born national and had never owned a Ghanaian passport. Further his son did not live at home but with friends they did not know at a location unknown to his parents.

They therefore did not have any knowledge about his movements or whereabouts prior to his demise. Mr. Ahenkan said that on Sunday, 15th November, the local police came to their residence and informed his wife, Adwoa Gyimah, about the critical condition of their son who had been admitted to a hospital in St Denis.

According to him, his wife followed the police to the hospital where she was told that personnel of the French Ambulance Service had rushed her son to the hospital. Mr. Ahenkan then stated that his wife saw their son attached to a life support machine but was told by the doctor that he was dead and therefore the life support needed to be switched of.

He explained that the police then informed his wife that they would get back to her after their investigations. In a later interview posted on a social website he said he had accompanied his wife and the police to the hospital. This contradicted what he had earlier told Embassy officials.

The Mission has carried out the necessary checks and can confirm that there are no reports or records of a stampede at the French national stadium following the terrorist attacks and no records of victims of a stampede in or outside the stadium, Ghanaian or otherwise.

The name Otis Nuako is not on the list of victims of the terror attacks released by the French authorities in Paris and there are no Ghanaians on the list either.

The Mission continues to work with the police and the host authorities to establish the facts of the case.