A/R: Duase residents protest sale of cemetery to private developer
Elders and residents of Duase in the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly in the Ashanti region are outraged over an attempt to use part of their public cemetery for development.
To express their outrage, they embarked on a peaceful demonstration at the cemetery, clad in red attire and red bands on their heads and arms.
They appealed to the Asantehene Otumfuo Osei Tutu II to help them protect their revered ancestral resting place.
According to the residents, for the past ten years, there have been attempts by an unknown developer to develop part of the cemetery, which they have constantly resisted.
To their surprise, on Wednesday, April 30, 2025, at dawn, the residents said the fence of the cemetery was breached, some graves destroyed,d and human skeletons were found scattered around.
A situation they described as taboo and abomination, and called for urgent attention to avoid the wrath of the gods and the ancestors.
To appease the gods and the ancestors, a libation was poured at the cemetery, and warned that any further attempt by a person to encroach on the sacred place would be fiercely resisted.
The Assembly Member for Duase Electoral Area, Hon Anthony Kwaku Agyei, in an interview with Otec News, appealed to the Asantehene to intervene to save the community.
He said several appeals have been made to Otumfuo Nsumankwahene for an intervention, but to no avail.
A 71-year-old man, Nana Bediako, who was crying, expressed worry about the consequences of the destruction of their ancestral abode and also called on the Asantehene to come to their aid.
The Duase community has been without a chief following the destoolment of the chief by the Asantehene about ten years ago.
The residents used the opportunity and appealed to Asantehene to install a chief in the community to avoid such situations.
Source: Ghana/otecfmghana.com/Francis Appiah
