The family of the Ga Manye, Naa Dedei Omaedru III, has threatened to stop the Ga Traditional Council from going ahead with the funeral service of their bereaved relative.
According to the group, the Traditional Council has pushed them aside from the preparations of the funeral despite several calls for engagement.
The family head, including six other persons, secured an interim injunction against the funeral, scheduled for Saturday, October 28.
However, a member of the funeral committee, Nii Ayikoi Otoo, insisted that the funeral would go on as planned because they had not been served with the injunction.
In an interview with Umaru Amadu Sanda on Eyewitness News on Citi FM, a member of the Ga Manye family, Abdul Salam, admitted that the Ga Traditional Council is yet to be served with the injunction.
He said the injunction is against both the remains and the funeral.
“We decide who to sue, if the suit fails, it should come from the court. The people [Ga Traditional Council] don’t have respect for the family. We will serve them with the injunction. The injunction is not just on the body, but also the funeral.” he said.
Abdul Salam explained that they turned to the law court after the Ga Traditional Council failed to partner with the family in the preparations for the funeral.
“The choice to go to the court is that our elders at the Ga Traditional Council, the funeral committee, have refused to reason with us,” he said.
“And it is, as though, people are using power rather than the law, and we have been told time without number that the remains of our mother and queen belong to the state. And continuously, we have been told of this, but the fact is the remains belong to the wider family, that is the position of the law. We are talking about Naa Dedei Omaedru III, it’s our job as a family to also invite the Traditional Council because it is from the family that we elected and enstooled our mother and gave her for service to the state.”
He added, “It is our belief that it should be a partnership between the family and the Ga Traditional Council. However, they are pushing us aside. We have been cautioning them to slow down so that we can talk and find a way forward, but our calls have fallen on deaf ears. The body is with the family, and not with them. It is the family that sent the body to the morgue. Everyone knows that the body is with us, but they have said that with or without the body, they will continue with the funeral.”
Background
Ga Manye, Naa Dedei Omaedru III died in December 2022.
A book of condolences was signed and opened by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo on June 19, 2023.
The final funeral rites of the late Ga Manye were slated from October 15 to 31 2023.
The Ga Traditional Council recently revised its directive on the closure of shops ahead of preparations for the final funeral rites of the late queen, Naa Dedei Omaedru III.
The Council previously directed that all offices and shops in the Central Business District in the Greater Accra Region be closed for three days from the 26th to the 29th of October.
The Council in a new statement directed that offices and businesses be closed only on Saturday, October 28 and not the previously announced three-day directive.
“This is an amendment to our previous notice of 4th September 2023. The Ga Traditional Council has determined that shops and markets within Accra should be closed on Saturday, the 28th of October 2023 only and not from the 26th of October to the 29th of October 2023 to the 31st of October 2023 as previously announced,” the council said in the new statement.
“In addition, it is required that all markets, shops and offices in Accra should be draped in red and black, our mourning colours from the 15th October to the 31st October 2023. We respectfully urge everyone to comply fully with this announcement.”
