Saviour Church Ends Fight Over Dead Body

The controversial remains of Lydia Asirifi were at long last laid to rest last Sunday, January 25, 2004 at the Winneba public cemetery. The burial, on the orders of the court, marked the end of a year old dispute between factions of the Saviour Church of Ghana over rights to bury the body.

The deceased, Lydia Asirifi, who was married to the brother of Abraham Kwaku Edusei, leader of one of the factions in the Saviour's Church of Ghana dispute at Osiem in the Eastern Region, was rushed to the Emergency Ward of the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital on January 25, 2003 following complication she allegedly suffered after persistent domestic violence and delayed medical attention.

According to police reports, those who sent her to the hospital registered the victim under the false name of 'Lydia Edusei Poku' instead of her real name Lydia Asirifi.

Later after her death on February 4, 2003, some members of the Saviour Church of Ghana reportedly tendered instruction from Abraham Kwaku Edusei, requesting the release of the corps, to one Peter Asante who signed for it.

The corpse, was consequently conveyed to an unknown destination on February 12, 2003 for 'burial' but the matrimonial family filed a suit at the High Court to restrain the husband from going ahead with the burial.

This was followed by a protracted legal ping-pong between the two factions culminating in the final determination of the case at the Supreme Court in favour of the matrimonial family.

Even then, the battle for the burial of the late Lydia did not end. The Edusei faction, who had secured the burial certificate immediately after Lydia's death, refused to release the certificate to the deceased's matrimonial family.

It took another court order to compel the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital Mortuary administrators to release the body after issuing another death certificate.