Politicians Fight Over Cemetery

Opanin Addo Agyekum

The National Democratic Congress (NDC) parliamentary candidate for the Ayensuano Constituency and an independent candidate for the same constituency in the Eastern Region, who are all from Amenase, near Suhum, are fighting over a cemetery in the town.

The NDC candidate, Michael Kodua, had accused the independent candidate, who is also the chief executive of Tete Atenpong Herbal Centre at Amenase, Opanin Addo Agyekum, of collaborating with Chinese contractors constructing the Nsawam-Suhum road to exhume dead bodies at a new cemetery of the town for ritual purposes on an Accra private radio station.

Mr Agyekum, yesterday at a press conference to react to the allegations, also accused Mr Kodua of diabolically acquiring the old cemetery of the town for a purpose which the people of the town knew nothing about.

He accused the NDC candidate of bringing the image of his party into disrepute in the constituency and causing disaffection for the party through his repulsive attitude.

“Mr Kodua has been throwing his weight about and insulting everybody in this town. He has even insulted the chief of this town which has resulted in a fine for him. He is very arrogant and does not respect anybody,” Opanin Addo Agyekum said.

According to him, because Mr Kodua had realised that he was losing all his supporters to him, Kodua had concocted that story to malign him but that would not wash because he (Addo Agyekum) had been a good servant of the people of the town and Ayensuano as a whole.

Opanin Agyekum explained that he had about 22 acres of land which he had acquired for farming in the area but decided to give five acres to the people of Amenase for use as a new cemetery. He also gave an additional six acres on a commercial basis to the contractors of the Nsawam-Suhum road for them to win sand to fill the road they are constructing.

“It is never true that the Chinese contractors are exhuming dead bodies from the new cemetery as Kodua is alleging because the land from which they are winning the sand is completely detached from the cemetery,” he said.

The chief of the town, Nana Baffour Asare II, also accused the NDC candidate of causing confusion in the town, adding that the chiefs in the town would reprimand him for the ‘desecrating’ comments he had made about the dead of the town.

When journalists who attended the press conference were being taken round the cemetery to ascertain things for themselves, the NDC candidate in his campaign car and his supporters on motorbikes were seen following the team and Opanin Addo Agyekum just to foment trouble but Mr Agyekum restrained his supporters.

From Thomas Fosu Jnr, Amenase