Adjikpo youth clash with families over burials at royal Bunase cemetery

Correspondence from Eastern Region

There was a commotion at the Bunase Royal Cemetery at Adjikpo, a suburb of Somanya in the Yilo Krobo Municipality of the Eastern Region on Saturday, February 11, 2023, when some agitated youth from Adjikpo Dorno confronted some families who had gone to the burial ground to inter their deceased loved ones.

Information gathered by GhanaWeb indicated the youth numbering between 10 and 20 insisted on being given due recognition as custodians of the burial grounds before they would allow the interment of the deceased to take place.

The families in the end had no option but to pay the charged amount of Ghc3,000 to the youth before being allowed to go ahead with the burial.

It took the intervention of police personnel led by the Somanya District Commander, Supt Andrews Anyane to restore calm and bring the situation under control.

Giving the genesis of the impasse, the Divisional chief of Bunase, Nene Narh Ogbordjor Agbo III speaking in an interview said the youth had insisted on taking over the management of the cemetery lands even though it is not a public facility.

He denied accusations by the youth that he sold his portion of the lands offered for royal burials and was still reaping monies supposed to be paid to the existing owners.

“The impasse over the cemetery is a long standing one which began in 2018 when the youth forcefully took over the administration of the cemetery, accusing me of selling parts of the cemetery lands which I denied,” the traditional leader narrated. “In 2018, they wrote to me, informing me that they had taken over the royal cemetery but we responded that the cemetery is not a public burial site but a royal site which administration is only managed by chiefs.”

He furthered that after failing to resolve the impasse, the case was sent to the Somanya High Court in March 2022 for arbitration with the court in November same year placing an injunction on the youth from holding themselves as custodians of the cemetery lands.

This injunction however did not go down well with the aggrieved youth who continued to harass members of the committee from undertaking any activities at the cemetery.

Based on the court’s ruling, the Bunase Royal Cemetery Management Committee made of eight Asafoatsemei was established by Nene Ogbordjor to oversee the running of the cemetery until the final determination of the case.

However, the youth prior to the burial day last Saturday, sealed three graves excavated on the orders of the committee for the burial of three deceased people.

One of the agitated youth and a resident of Adjikpo Dorno who gave his name as Ellis accused Nene Narh Ogbordjor Agbo III of selling his portion of lands volunteered for use for royal burials.

“My grandfather, Asafoatse Kwaku Amoah together with four other families volunteered lands for use as a cemetery for the community. Following the death of my grandfather and the previous chief, the new chief whose family also volunteered lands sold his portion to individuals for various developmental projects.

“After this, he still insists that monies to be paid to him by families of deceased persons before burials are done on the lands. He’s just collected Ghc3,000 from a family,” he disclosed.

According to him the chief has failed to facilitate any developmental projects in the community from the revenue generated from burials at the cemetery.

He furthered that the youth managing the royalties from burial activities at the cemetery have put the revenue generated from the burials at the site to judicious use such as establishing schools, reshaping of roads and other projects in the community.

The agitated youth leader insisted that the court injunction would not bar the youth from maintaining the cemetery and barring families who do not approach them before holding burial activities on the lands.

The cemetery, according to Nartey Patrick Nyani, Secretary to the Bunase Royal Cemetery Management Committee was previously managed by Nene Teye Agbe V, predecessor to the current divisional chief, Nene Narh Ogbordjor Agbo III.

According to him, members of the committee were continuously prevented from visiting the site by the agitated youth including prior to last Saturday’s incident.

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