Check trespassers in Accra cemeteries - Sexton

Accra, May 10, GNA - Alhaji Ahmed Annan, Sexton in-charge of Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) Cemeteries, has expressed concern about the activities of trespassers operating in the various cemeteries as mason and gravediggers rise to criminal activities including grave looting. Alhaji Ahmed Annan speaking to the Ghana News Agency said unknown to the authorities they had allocated portions of cemeteries especially at Osu to themselves charging illegal fees ranging from 100,000 to 300,000 cedis from mourners for grave allocation to bury their relatives. He said they also directed people to bury their corpse at wrong places, creating confusion between mourners and AMA staff at the cemeteries.

He said, "It's too common these days to see people loitering in cemeteries without permission".

Mr Devine Dornu Sappor, Health Officer in-charge of AMA Cemeteries, called stringent measures to arrest and prosecute people found loitering in cemeteries especially in Accra.

He advised mourners not to pay any fee to unauthorised persons but to channel their enquiries through the Sexton's Office whenever they had to bury a dead relative.