Residents of Akyem Old Tafo in the East Akim Municipality of the Eastern Region have been left in a state of shock after a young man in his mid-20s exhumed a dead body claiming the deceased family failed to pay GHC20 as the cost of his services after the burial.

Kwame Korankye Nkansah’s corpse was interred at the Old Tafo cemetery a fortnight ago but Attah a.k.a Abodam who is claiming he facilitated the burial as a pallbearer, said he was never paid for his services and therefore was exhuming the body in order to force the family settle their indebtedness before the youth of the area pounced on him.

The youth who spotted him digging the grave of what could pass for a decomposing body, pounced on him and subjected him to severe beatings and questioned him on why he had dug part of the concrete slab used to seal the grave.

In response, he claimed the family owed him and all efforts to get them settle their indebtedness proved futile resulting in his action.

Infuriated by his lame excuse, the youth subjected him to another round of beatings but this time around he claimed he had been contracted by some money ritualists otherwise known as “Sakawa” to bring a human part for some rituals and said same to the police.

Checks on the grave revealed that he ripped the casket apart after digging a portion of the grave exposing the decomposing body of the deceased person and other materials used in burying him.

He has since been handed over to the police for further investigations but residents are of the view that the suspect could be mentally deranged and may have informed his conduct.

Meanwhile, the bereaved family when reached denied having any ties with the suspect indicating he never played any role in the funeral and is not known to the family.

According to them, it is untrue they owe him and challenged him to mention the one who contracted him as a pallbearer during the burial service.