Obenfo Addo Agyekum, has distanced the Okyenhene, Osagyefuo Amoatia Ofori Panin from the sale of the royal cemetery to a private investor, insisting that the Okyenhene only ruled on a dispute that arose out of the sale of the cemetery to the investor eleven years ago.
He explained that the cemetery was sold to an investor by late chief Nana Asamoah Darkwaa under the witness of Osabarima Asamoah Asare Ampofo, Abena Asamabea and one teacher Offei in 2012.
Suhum District Police Command on Thursday April 21, 2023 stormed Amanase Chiefs Palace to retrieve skeletons of exhumed human bodies kept at the palace.
The bodies were exhumed from the royal cemetery in the community after it was reportedly sold to an investor to be used for construction of a fuel station.
The bodies exhumed include late chiefs and royals. Two of the exhumed bodies were freshly buried.
While one of the fresh corpses have been reburied, the other has been kept at the Suhum Government Hospital morgue.
However, the Gyaasehene of Amanase Obenfo Addo Agyekum, who doubles as Acting Chief of the community decided to keep the exhumed skeletons of late chiefs of the in a room at the palace.
This created uproar in recent times among some royal family members and residents.
Obenfo Addo Agyekum earlier told Starr News, “the cemetery has been sold to an investor as a result we have to exhume the bodies. So Okyenhene Osagyefuo Amoatia Ofori Panin, himself ordered that the bodies be exhumed to enable the investor to develop the land so we held a community durbar, invited everybody including pastors, opinion leaders to discuss the matter”.
He continued that “So after exhuming the bodies we realized we have to create a new royal cemetery to rebury skeletons of the late Chiefs .We tried several times to get earmarked land for that purpose but were unsuccessful so we decide to keep the skeletons in a room here at the palace until we get cemetery to rebury them. We had two fresh bodies which we sent to Suhum government hospital but we managed to bury one, the other body is still at the
However there was a push back which the investor petitioned the Judicial Committee of Akyem Abuakwa traditional council chaired by Okyenhene Osagyefuo Amoatia Ofori who ruled in favour of the investor with consequential order for exhumation.
“Base on this evidence, I want to categorically state that Okyenhene Osagyefuo Amoatia Ofori Panin has no hand in the sale of the old Amanase cemetery which was sold by our predecessors(Nananom) so it is not true what is circulating in the media that Okyenhene is behind the sale of Amanase old cemetery land”.
He added “because of the ruling, we decided to exhume the bodies, especially those who are royals to rebury them. We sent the fresh bodies to the Suhum government mortuary and we did mass burial for others”.
“There was an issue at Suhum government mortuary so we kept some of the skeletal parts of our late royals and chiefs in the palace so that we immediately acquire a land which will solely be for the burial of the skeletal remains of our royal chiefs and elders but delay in acquiring the land accounted to the keeping of the skeletal remains in the palace but now that we have acquired the land we will perform the necessary rite and bury them and have a good rest” he said.
