Families race for buried relatives as chief claims cemetery land

General news for Friday, September 18, 2020

Source: angelonline.com.gh

2020-09-18

Families from Diabene, a suburb of Kojokrom within the Sekondi-Takoradi metropolis, were spotted running to the Diabene community cemetery to collect the remains of their already buried relatives for reburial.

The event that occurred on Thursday afternoon was due to the decision of the chief and the queen mother to claim portions of the cemetery for a soccer field for the youth.

Diabene’s queen mother, Nana Aba Esson (II), said that “this is not an impromptu activity. For the past two weeks, we have sent the town crier to announce our decision to the people, so that no one can say they don’t know. “

She refuted claims that people weren’t informed by saying that perhaps those people do not live in the city and that their resident relatives may not have notified them prior to the recovery exercise.

Nana Aba Esson (II) further revealed that before someone is buried in the cemetery, the relatives of the deceased inform the palace so that the chief’s linguist will assign them a burial place within the community cemetery.

Additional verifications from Angelonline.com indicate that the exercise was led by Diabene’s Chief and Queen Mother with the help of the Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolitan Assembly Department of Environmental Health, who oversaw the exhumation.

The portion of the cemetery that is being reclaimed would create a larger space for expansion works on a soccer field for the youth of the community.

Upon reaching the cemetery, a backhoe machine was seen breaking up graves and exhuming coffins within the demarcated area, while family members also rushed to the scene to collect the remains of their deceased relatives.