Former President Jerry John Rawlings has called for the depopulation of the Osu Cemetery to ensure that the deceased receive more fitting burials.
According to him, the facility is currently “choking”, making it difficult for persons to walk through without trampling on graves.
“I am saying, if I had money, I would move all of my people out of that place and send them home so that we can free Osu and give people who are dying a more fitting burial,” President Rawlings lamented during an interaction with the family of deceased national coach Sam Arday.
“Osu is choking and there is something a little indecent about what goes on there”, he said.
However, Mr Rawlings admitted that it will be difficult to depopulate the cemetery because most Ghanaians including members of his own family, have lost their ancestral homes and prefer to be buried in Accra.
“When I suggested to my mother the idea of sending them home, she said no and she is from the Volta Region but that is what is happening. Most of us have lost our ancestral homes,” President Rawlings said.
He also disclosed that he will suggest a depopulation of the Osu Cemetery along the lines of the Second World War military cemetery when he meets with the Greater Accra Regional Minister and the Accra mayor.
“I don’t know, maybe I will try and talk to the regional minister and the local mayor so that they can start thinking about it, you know. It is not healthy at all what is going on there. There is hardly any space to even walk lest you are trampling and stepping on people’s graves.
“We have got to find a way of depopulating it, let’s say along the lines of what the second world war military cemetery has been arranged”.
Listen to President Rawlings below
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