Very Reverend Father Bernard Osei Ampong, a Roman Catholic Parish priest of the St. Joseph The Worker Parish, Kuntanase in the Bosomtwe District of the Ashanti Region, has questioned the burial of a neighbour near another family house.
The Catholic priest, who is a member of the Biriwaase family of Jachie, also in the Bosomtwe district, claims the body of one late Opanin Kwaku Asamoah, with whom the family shares a fence wall was buried at his house at Jachie South on February 8 last year.
Rev. Fr. Osei Ampong indicated that his family is vulnerable to this nuisance and insensitiveness caused by the deceased’s family.
According to him, a well, which serves as their main source of drinking water, has been dug in their house, about 28-30 meters (78 feet) from the burial site.
The concerned Priest said more alarming is the face that the land in the area is waterlogged and that the seepage from the corpse will eventually drain into the well.
He described the action of Opanin Asamoah’s family as a bad precedence and one big worry bequeathed on his family by their neighbor which he said must be resisted. As a result, the Catholic priest lodged a complaint with the Bosomtwe District Assembly, the District and Regional Environmental and Protection Agency (EPA), the Kuntanase Divisional Police and the elders of the Jachie Dub-Traditional Council (JTC).
He indicated that the EPA acted on his complaint and initiated action against the family of the later Opanin Kwaku Asamoah at the Bekwai Circuit Court.
Justice Daniel Kwaku Obeng, presiding on the case on Monday, August 4, 2014, upheld that the action of the late Opanin Kwaku Asamoah’s family, represented in court by Matthew Wireko (Family Head), Kofi Agyapong (Assistant family Head) and Rexford Opoku, a member; was an unauthorized burial contrary to Section 24 of Registration of Births and Deaths Act of 301 of 1965.
Also, causing nuisance to the neighborhood, contrary to section 296 (1) of act 29/60 as amended.
Reverend Father Bernard Osei Ampong has, therefore, appealed to the Ashanti Regional Minister to order the exhumation of the late Opanin Kwaku Asamoh from the house for burial at a public Cemetery.
According to him, the residential burial has made them vulnerable to the nuisance and insensitive of the family and the entire neighborhood.
The petition, which was also copied to the Ashanti Regional Police Commander, DCOP Nathaniel Kofi Boakye and the Regional Director of EPA among others, called for the exhumation of the decomposed body of Opanin Kwaku Asamoah.
“We are concerned because it is definite that the decomposed body of Opanin Kwaku Asamoah will seep into our family’s well and other nearby wells in our neighborhood, which poses serious environmental and health hazard to our family”, he complained.
He challenged the ruling of the court that the unauthorized burial should remain, in the face of the continued decomposition of the human corpse, with its attendant product of bacteria, viruses and organic and inorganic chemicals that mix with groundwater.
The Catholic Priest said it is evident the family of the deceased did not obtain burial permit, contrary to section 24 of the Birth and Death act, 1965 Act 305, which reads: “A person shall not bury a dead body elsewhere than in a burial ground authorized under this Act, except with the permission of the local authorities”
Meanwhile, head of the late Opanin Kwaku Asamoah’s family, Mr. Matthew Wireko has confirmed to The Chronicle on phone that the family indeed buried their royal, Opanin Kwaku Asamoah in their house at Jachie for which they had been dragged to court.
Mr. Cudjoe, and environmental officer at Jachie also confirmed to The Chronicle that the family was not permitted to bury the late Opanin Kwaku Asamoah in his residence and that they erred in interring the body there.
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