Pandemonium broke out on Saturday, when about 400 irate youth from Kpone, near Tema, wearing red arm bands and headgears, prevented mourners from Tema and its surrounding areas from burying their dead in the Kpone Public Cemetery.
The protest, which lasted more than seven hours, was in support of the Kpone Traditional Council's resolution opposing plans by the Tema Metropolitan Assembly (TMA)to expand the Kpone cemetery.
Brandishing implements such as cutlasses and cudgels and singing war songs, they refilled all dug out graves with sand and barricaded the entrance to the cemetery, amidst the burning of lorry tyres.
In all, 18 families were prevented from burying their dead and the Times learnt that some of the bodies were taken to the Volta Region for burial, while others were either sent to Odumase-Krobo or returned to the morgue.
Even though personnel of the Buffalo Unit of the Tema Regional Police and the Kpone police who were deployed to the area, pleaded with the demonstrators to allow the bodies to be buried, their plea fell on deaf ears.
Some of the mourners heading for the cemetery, upon hearing of the impasse, stopped their vehicles near the Kpone police barrier to avoid any confrontation with the irate youth. That led to a heavy traffic jam on the Tema- Aflao road.
Briefing the Times on the incident, Mr. William Josiah, Spokesperson for the Kpone Coalition of Youth Associations, said the people were fed up with the use of Kpone as "the waste paper basket of Tema" and the demonstration was to tell the authorities that "enough is enough."
He said this in reference to the siting of a land fill project and public cemetery on Kpone lands.
Mr. Josiah said to ensure that there was enough land for the growing population of Kpone, they recently engaged the Tema Development Corporation to release some land to the traditional council since the land in question was reserved for the burial of their royals.
He said the townsfolk were annoyed that all good things established on Kpone lands like factories were associated with Tema, but the 'bad things' such as insanitary conditions were associated with Kpone.
He said it was sad that not a single development project could be ascribed as being undertaken by the TMA in the area, adding that "the people of Kpone are not fools, we were sleeping but now we are awake."
Mr. Josiah asked the TMA to educate people to bury their dead relatives in their hometowns.
