Ga South Assembly stops illegal cemetery project at Oboum
The Ga South Municipal Assembly has halted an illegal cemetery project at Oboum, which led to the exhumation of a corpse that had been buried on a privately owned piece of land without permission.
The affected landowner, Eric Bedford Nii Quaye, said he was shocked to discover that part of his property, situated close to a river, had been designated as a cemetery by unidentified individuals, suspected to be local traditional leaders or their representatives.
He indicated that a dead body had already been interred on the land without his consent.
“I have a land at Oboum. There is a river around there, and I understand that the chief or whoever gave the land out as a cemetery knew all these. One dead body was already buried there,” he said.
“The land is mine, so I reported it to the necessary authorities. An order was given for the police and the Assembly to go and exhume the body, so I can reclaim my land. I have all documents over the land title and everything that shows the land is mine,” he told journalists during an interview.
Following his report, the Ga South Municipal Assembly, led by the Municipal Chief Executive, Moses Kabu Kubi Ocansey, directed a team of environmental health officers, together with police personnel, to undertake the exhumation exercise.
Once completed, the operation will pave the way for the land to be restored to its rightful owner.
The Assembly has emphasised that it did not approve the site for use as a cemetery, noting that such a development, particularly close to a waterbody, breaches municipal environmental and public health laws.
It added that measures are being put in place to engage key stakeholders to forestall a recurrence of such incidents and to ensure that land use within the municipality complies with legal and health standards.
Source: Class FM
