Dead Bodies: AMA Blames Community

The situation at the ''Mile Eleven'' cemetery off the Kasoa-Winneba road where decomposed bodies were reportedly exposed due to Monday morning's  downpour has been given a new twist. Reacting to the story, the Metropolitan Public Health Director of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA), Dr Simpson Anim Boateng, contended that the incident was a deliberate  action by members of the community to demonstrate their disapproval  of mass burial  of corpses there.

He said investigations by  his  department on Tuesday revealed that the grave was  dug  by the residents he accused of illegally building there.

According to him, the residents had encroached on the land meant for the cemetery.

Dr Boateng told the Times in an interview yesterday that the government in the 1970s acquired over 200 acres of land there for that purpose but  the encroachment had  left less than only four acres for mass burial.

“These people acquired the land from the  chief in the area and are staying there at the risk of their health  because most of the people buried  there died of highly contagious diseases,” he stated.

Dr Boateng, who sounded  frustrated, said his department had on numerous occasions advised people against the practice.

“Honestly speaking, the national security will have to come in because the situation is beyond me now  and the whole  township is built on cemeteries, although no single resident can show  a permit allowing him or her to build there,” he complained.

He said because of the   encroachment, only  a small piece of land was left for mass burial and that often  resulted in  digging and exposing of skeletal  parts in the process because the very limited space.

His frustration was further expressed when he stated that a lot  of very  influential people in the society had acquired lands there thus making  their efforts to bring back sanity to the area very difficult.

Meanwhile, Dr Boateng   led a team to the cemetery to dig a new grave for the reburial of the corpses.

The entire area has also been fumigated.
An official at the Environmental Protection Agency  told the Times that they  could only make a public statement after they had have visited the place.