Confusion mars Otiko funeral

The funeral of the late Henry Kwadwo Djaba aka ‘I Shall Return’, father of National Women’s Organiser of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Otiko Djaba, was an arena of confusion.

Hundreds of mourners, who thronged the funeral grounds at Somanya in the Eastern Region, were left embarrassed as they could not have the privilege of seeing their beloved lowered into the ground for a solemn burial.

Not even former President John Agyekum Kufuor’s intervention could calm the raging tempers as confusion broke between his children over his final resting place on December 15, 2013.

Whilst some insisted he should be laid to rest at the public cemetery others contended that he should be buried at his private residence in Somanya, his hometown, since that was one of his last wishes.

As a result, some of the mourners had to leave without knowing for sure where the late Henry Djaba was finally laid to rest.

The remains of the 80-year-old man had to be transported back to Accra where it was kept in a morgue until the next day, Sunday December 16, 2013.

Sources said the feuding children remained divided on the matter and this drew a number of high-ranking security officers to the grounds on Sunday.

‘I Shall Return’, as he was affectionately called by his peers, was finally laid to rest at the forecourt of his three-storey building in Somanya by the police as ordered by the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Ahmed Alhassan Mohamed against the wishes of some his children, especially one of his sons who threatened to exhume the body if it was buried in the house.

The 80-year-old Henry Kwadwo Djaba died in the second week of October 2013.

He was a business tycoon and a politician.

He was once a member of Nkrumah’s Convention People’s Party (CPP) and onetime chairman of the defunct Abuakwa Susubribi Sporting Club of New Tafo.

In 1962, he was accused of plotting a coup to overthrow Nkrumah’s government.

Henry Djaba was subsequently arrested and incarcerated. His assets were frozen while many of his houses were confiscated to the state, including the three-storey building where he was buried in Somanya.

He was released after the overthrow of Nkrumah’s government.

Later, he joined the Progress Party (PP) led by Kofi Abrefa Busia where he championed his political ideologies.

During the 1979 coup, he went into a self-imposed exile in UK and returned into the country during constitutional rule.

He left behind a number of children including Otiko Afisa Djaba.

His burial ground at Somanya has become a security concern since the police have to ensure that his remains stay as they were buried and not exhumed as threatened by one of his sons.