[ 2012-08-02 ]

The grave digging excavator at work at the flagstaff house

Chinese dig 9 graves at Flagstaff House
Construction of a number of graves has begun at
the Flagstaff House, the presidential palace
located along the Independence Avenue in Accra,
for the burial of President John Evans Atta Mills
who passed away a little over a week ago.

Wednesday, a number of Ghanaian workers and their
Chinese supervisors were seen busily working on
the graves at the forecourt of the facility, with
a bulldozer excavator and a tipper truck on site.

The graves are nine in number, raising questions
about the other bodies to be interred in them
apart from that of President Atta Mills.

The graves are about 50 metres away from the main
gate of the presidential palace.

There was heavy police presence at the place,
making it absolutely impossible for our roving
reporters to have access to the place, considering
the fact that it is already a high security zone.

But Daily Guide sources have hinted that as many
as nine graves are being constructed at the
Flagstaff House in defiance of suggestions by a
number of Ghanaians including the Metropolitan
Catholic Archbishop of Accra, Most Reverend
Charles Gabriel Palmer-Buckle.

Others have also condemned the decision of
virtually turning the presidential palace, which
President Mills declined to use when alive, into a
cemetery.

The family of the departed president stated that
it wanted the former president to be buried in his
hometown, Ekumfi Otuam.

However, a statement issued in Accra yesterday
evening by the Funeral Planning Committee (FPC),
chaired by Kofi Totobi Kwakye, a former National
Security Minister, and signed by Deputy
Information Minister James Agyenim-Boateng,
spokesperson of the committee, said, “After a
series of consultations, the proposed burial sites
have been narrowed down to the Kwame Nkrumah
Memorial Park and a location within the old
Flagstaff House.”

However, attempts to speak to Mr. Agyenim-Boateng
to ascertain why a number of graves were being dug
at the Flagstaff House, when the committee was yet
to take a final decision on the burial place,
proved unsuccessful since he did not answer
several calls to his mobile phone.

What is also not clear is whether some other
bodies would be buried alongside that of the late
President Mills in view of the number of graves
being dug.

Confusion
A member of the committee and former Chief of
Staff under the Rawlings regime, Nana Ato Dadzie,
who spoke on the issue earlier in the day, said
the place was an ideal location for the burial of
the late president.

That, he said, was because there was enough space
at the presidential palace to serve as a burial
ground for the late president, insisting that it
would not affect the sensitivity of any president
who intended to operate from the premises.

Nana Ato Dadzie, who spoke on Metro TV’s Good
Morning Ghana, said, “A portion of that land has
President Nkrumah’s residence, there is a portion
which used to have a whole zoo and President
[John] Kufuor rightly thought that we needed an
edifice so he put up a house, popularly known as
Jubilee House, and it’s only one facility on a
portion of that land so there is a lot of space
out there where it could be developed.”

The committee was reported to have visited and
held discussions with the leadership of
Parliament, the National Chief Imam, the Chief
Justice and the Council of State as part of
ongoing consultations to build a national
consensus on the funeral and burial arrangements
for the late president.

“The FPC briefed them on the proposed funeral
arrangements and used the discussions to seek
their opinions on an appropriate resting place for
President Atta Mills,” the statement said.

But Most Rev. Charles Palmer-Buckle appealed to
the Mills funeral committee to consider the Kwame
Nkrumah Mausoleum for the burial of the late
President John Mills.

That, according to him, was because the mausoleum
held such an important historical significance
that it could only be the best burial grounds for
the late president.

“We were there and there is enough space and the
place is historical for the dear country Ghana
because that is where Kwame Nkrumah declared
independence for the country and so if it becomes
a place where all our future heads of state would
be buried that would be great,” he told Joy FM
yesterday.

He even suggested exhuming the bodies of all
former heads of state to be buried there.

Former Chief of Staff under the erstwhile Kufuor
administration that constructed the facility,
Kwadwo Okyere Mpiani, has equally spoken against
any attempt to convert the presidential palace
into burial grounds for former heads of state.

He said the committee ought to build a consensus
among Ghanaians before finally settling on the
venue since another president could decide not to
allow the place to be turned into a cemetery.

Source - Daily Guide

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