Aggrieved family threatens to injunct Mills' burial

The family members claim they have not been consulted on issues relating to the death and burial of their beloved son and are outraged.

Government announced that the late president will be buried on August 10 but will be laid in state on August 8 and 9 for the diplomats and the general public to pay their last respect.

The funeral committee government constituted is still deliberating and liaising with some family members on a burial ground.

But elders of Ekumfi Otuam are angry that most of the meetings organised in relation to the burial of late President Mills have been held in Cape Coast instead of the real home town of the late president.

Shortly after the visit of the family of the wife of the late president in Cape Coast, some of the outraged family members could no longer hide their displeasure.

They were incensed about how suddenly Cape Coast has become the hometown of the late president with all dignitaries holding meetings in Cape Coast instead of Ekumfi Otuam.

Nana Kwame Taylor, a nephew of the late president and the one of the chiefs in the Ekumfi state told Joy News Central Region correspondent Richard Kojo Nyarko they are considering putting an injunction on the funeral of the late president.

They said tradition is being broken with impunity and they will not allow such a thing to continue.

The Abusuapanyin of the Ekumfi Otuam, Nana Kweku Gyasi II insists they will not accept the date set for the funeral of the late president and demanded a meeting to thrash out the fine details of the funeral ceremonies.

Richard Kojo Nyarko said the mood in Ekumfi Otuam is solemn with canopies erected at the Jubilee Park.

All flags are still flying at half masts as directed by the president John Mahama with residents preparing to observe a one minute silence at 2:15 tomorrow (Tuesday), to mark one week celebration of the death of the late president.

Asked why the different opinions from the same family, Nyarko explained the late president has two family houses-one in Ekumfi Otuam and the other is in Nkanfua in Cape Coast. Even though the president hailed from Otuam, he spent most of his life in Cape Coast, Nyarko reported.

Central Region Minister Ama Benyiwa Doe pleaded with the family to be “calm and allow the man of peace to be buried as custom and state demands.”

She said by Akan traditions, when somebody dies it is the father’s side of the deceased who is consulted and not the mother’s side.

Even though everybody feels pain in the heart, she said the blood brothers and sisters have legitimate rights to take decisions on behalf of the family.

She said both family members must resolve the differences.

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