Sege: Chief’s Body Burnt To Ashes, Mourner Killed

A 40-YEAR-OLD mourner, Ofori Sabbah has been shot dead after the corpse of a late Tehey Chief, Nene Mensah Zortovi V was burnt to ashes at Tehey, a suburb of Sege in the Ada West District of the Greater Accra Region.

The remains of the late 67-year-old chief was burnt together with the hearse which was conveying the body for burial at Tehey last Saturday.

Several other mourners who sustained various degrees of injury are battling with their lives when aggrieved rivalry group of the late chief who opposed the burial of the late chief at the Tehey community attacked mourners with dangerous weapons forcing them to flee from the hearse containing the corpse, to save their lives. The hearse was thereafter set ablaze together with the corpse.

The charred body of the late Nene Zotorvie and that of Ofori Sabbah had been deposited at the Police Hospital morgue in Accra, pending autopsies.

Information available to DAILY GUIDE indicates that the incident came about as a result of a land dispute between the Zortovie family of Tamatoku and some indigenes of Tehey.

The incident occurred when a section of the Zortovie family applied for a court injunction to restrain the deceased family from burying the late chief in the Tehey community.

However, the deceased family, having been served with writ late Saturday, decided to go ahead and bury the late chief at Tehey. This angered the Zortovie family who accosted them on their way to the cemetery and attacked them amidst shooting.

The following day, the remains of Sabbah was found with injuries believed to be from pellets and cement blocks in an uncompleted building when police in the company of the District Chief Executive of the area and officials of the Bureau of National Investigation went there on a fact finding mission.

Meanwhile, police are yet to arrest any suspect in connection with the incident which has virtually turned Tehey into a ghost community.

The Ada Divisional Police Commander, Chief Superintendent George Kumah explained to DAILY GUIDE that one rivalry faction last Tuesday, 11 September, 2018 secured a court injunction restraining the family from burying the late Chief in his house at Tehey.

However, the deceased family was served with the writ at the funeral grounds at Tamatoku late on Saturday just as they were preparing to convey the body for burial.

He stated that the funeral organisers after studying the injunction agreed to bury the late chief at a different burial place.

According to him, the organisers did otherwise after the police had left the funeral grounds at about 6:00pm when they were convinced that the organisers would comply with the court injunction.

He, however, said it was late in the evening when he received information that the body was sent to a cemetery on the disputed land for burial which resulted into a chaotic situation, causing loss of life and the late chief was burnt into ashes together with the ambulance.

He called on both factions to remain calm as the security agencies initiate investigation into the incident to bring the perpetrators to book.

From Vincent Kubi, Tema