The family of the late Samuel Aboagye, one of the victims of the August 6, 2025, helicopter crash, has sued his wife, Abigail Salami, for refusing to allow them to conduct a DNA test on their child.
Aboagye, a former parliamentary candidate for Obuasi East, died in a helicopter crash with seven others at Sikaman Brofoyedu, while heading to Obuasi to launch the Responsible Cooperative Mining And Skills Development Programme.
Abigail Salami has been paying tribute to her late husband on social media, but the family is now taking legal action against her for refusing to allow them to verify the paternity of a child left behind by the former Deputy NADMO Director, who was also the NDC’s parliamentary candidate for Obuasi East.
Speaking on behalf of the family, Nana Gyamerah Kwabena Yiakwan, senior brother to the deceased Samuel Aboagye, questioned Abigail Salami’s family, asking why they are refusing to allow them to conduct the test to confirm whether the child belongs to their late relative or not.
In an interview with Onua News’ Nana Yaw Opoku, the late Aboagye’s brother disclosed that authorities requested the DNA of the late Aboagye’s child to ascertain which of the remains from the crash was his, a request the wife refused.
He added that they had gone to court to compel her to allow them to carry out the test, based on what their late relative had told them, as well as issues relating to their marriage which he was privy to.
“We want to do the DNA to clear all doubts about the paternity of the child. She has made the thing public. From the beginning, the DNA test was requested to ascertain the bodies after the crash. She refused to present the child. We devised another strategy for us to conduct the DNA and she still refused. We have come to court and she is still insisting she won’t agree to any DNA.
“I’m asking what the wife’s family know that they are refusing to let us conduct the test. I don’t know what they are hiding from me. That will help us to know the child is our blood because the father already told us and I am also privy to everything that happened in the marriage. So that is the main reason we want to conduct a DNA,” he explained in Twi.
Background
On August 6, 2025, a Ghana Air Force Harbin Z-9 helicopter carrying eight people to an event about fighting illegal mining crashed into a forested mountainside in the Ashanti region, killing all eight people on board.
Among the dead were Ghana’s Defence Minister Dr. Edward Kwadwo Omane Boamah and Environment Minister Ibrahim Murtala Muhammed.
The rest were acting Deputy National Security Coordinator Limuna Mohammed Muniru, Vice Chairman of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) Samuel Sarpong, former parliamentary candidate Samuel Aboagye, Squadron Leader Peter Bafemi Anala, Flying Officer Twum Ampadu and Sergeant Ernest Addo Mensah.
According to the Ghana Armed Forces, the helicopter took off from the Kotoka International Airport in Accra at 9:12 a.m., heading northwest into the interior toward the gold-mining area at the Obuasi Black Park in Obuasi, when it went off the radar.
The helicopter’s wreckage was found later, with all of the victims burnt beyond recognition in a post-crash fire.
Footage of the crash site showed debris on fire in a forest as people circled around to help. The crash was one of Ghana’s worst air disasters in more than a decade.
