Emena Assemblyman attributes recent deaths in community to desecration of cemetery

Residents of Emena in the Oforikrom Municipality of the Ashanti Region are worried about what they suspect to be mysterious deaths in the community recently. According to Kenneth Owusu Bediako, the Assemblyman for the area, four people have died mysteriously in recent days and it is suspected to be linked to the desecration of a community cemetery.

He claims a developer has also cut through the cemetery to make way to his house, leaving affected graves uncovered. “The house owner didn’t seek permission from the elders of the community before embarking on that activity.

“When we approached her she said the court had given her permission to grade that road through the cemetery to her house, but when she provided the documents, it was an interlocutory injunction,” he explained on Nhyira FM’s Ewiase Mu Nsem.

The Assemblyman said the case was reported to the Manhyia Palace, where the developer was asked to provide sheep and schnapps to perform pacification rites in the cemetery, but that was not heeded.

The recent death of four caused some angry youth in the community to protest. They claim the community has suffered the invasion of houseflies from the uncovered tombs in the cemetery, adversely affecting food vendors close to that area. “I informed Oforikrom MCE, and he ordered his team to fumigate and cover some of the tombs,” said Kenneth. Now the community is calling on the authorities to come to aid to perform the necessary traditional rites because they can’t bury dead bodies.

Source: Joseph Obeng