Ga Manye Funeral to Proceed Amid Injunction
The final funeral rites and burial of the queen mother of the Ga Traditional Council, Naa Dedei Omaedru III, will proceed, as confirmed by Nii Ayikoi Otoo, a member of the funeral planning committee and the Ga Adangbe Council President.
In an interview, he said the Committee has not been served with the court notice yet and therefore the authenticity of the said injunction is not certain.
“We don’t know anything about the injunction. These days, lots of things happen on social media. There may be things going around on social media, but I don’t think that as of now anybody has been served. I’m a member of the funeral committee, I have not been served with anything. We haven’t seen anything, so we don’t even know the extent of that order. What is it about? Is the Ga Traditional Council named as a party to the defendants?” he wondered in an interview on Eye Witness News.
He furthered that the funeral will take place as planned and announced.
“Saturday is the funeral day. We will have the burial service from 9:00 AM to 11:00 AM. Afterwards, we will hand over the coffin to the Asafoatsemei to parade through the principal streets. And in the evening, we will have a private burial,” he reiterated.
Injunction
Seven people secured a joint court injunction against the late Naa Dedei Omaedru III’s final funeral rites and burial on Wednesday.
They include Nuumo Emmanuel T. Antia We, Head of the Antie We of Kpone, Nii Addey Oba-Aasaa II, Ankobea of Antie We of Kpone, Shippi Antie I, Saduase Shippi Kpone, Charles Nii Kotey Kotey, Head of Naa Dedei Omaedru We Family of Faase, Accra and Asafoatse Nii Kotey Ga II.
The rest are Oseahene of Ga Manye Stool and Principal Elder of the Naa Dedei Omaedru We of Faase Accra, Michael Nii Ofei Danso of unnumbered House Accra, Principal Elder of Naa Dedei Omaedru We of Faase Accra and Naa Yomofio, Linguist of Ga Manye Naa Dedei Omaedru We.
The injunction will be valid for ten days.
“It is hereby ORDERED Defendants/Respondents or the Funeral Committee chaired by Nii Otintor II, all members of the committee, their privies, workmen, assigns and all persons working through them are restrained from handling, organizing, touching performing or dealing with the remained of the Late Queen Mother, Naa Dedei Omaedru III in any manner for a period of ten (10) days,” the order read.
Reason Behind Injunction
The injunction was secured by the relatives of the late queen mother who hold they have been sidelined in the arrangements for the funeral.
“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,” a member of the Ga Manye family, Abdul Salam, is quoted to have said by CNR.
He explained, “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.”
The queen mother died in December 2022 after reigning for 59 years at the age of 88.
