Nsauaem (Western Region) -- The family of the late Dr Kwame Nkrumah at Nsauaem has requested the chief and people of Nkroful to re-write their petition to the National Reconciliation Commission (NRC) asking for the return of the body of Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah to Nkroful.
Making the appeal at a press conference at Nsauaem yesterday, the family declared that the press conference held by the chief and people of Nkroful in October 2002 asking for the return of the First President's body was improper because no member of Dr Nkrumah's family was present.
J. A Armah, a legal practitioner, who was the spokesman for the family, said the family was “opposed to both the statement made at the said press conference and the petition sent to the NRC in their entirety.”
“The request for the remains of Dr Kwame Nkrumah to Nkroful was definitely wrong and misconceived,” he said. Armah said, “What the chief and people of Nkroful have petitioned for does not belong to them and no member of Dr Nkrumah's family was among the signatories to the petition to the NRC.”
He said it was the family's prerogative and customary rite to decide where, when and how to bury the remains of one of its members. “A chief at the birth place of any person cannot claim the right to bury that person for the simple reason that the deceased was accidentally born in his area of jurisdiction.”
Armah expressed concern about the neglect of the Western Region in terms of development despite the fact that the region contributed about 50 per cent of the country's foreign exchange earnings.
He said all the roads in the region were in bad shape and appealed to President J.A Kufuor to fulfil his promise of repairing roads in the region. Armah appealed to the government to rescue the Aboso Glass factory, Bonfira Tyre Company and to re-open the Tarkwa Gold Refinery, to support the Essiama Oil Mill, to reactivate the Bamboo Factory at Apaitaim and to assist the Subri Industrial Plantation.
“We strongly believe that President Kufuor will not neglect the Western Region in terms of education, health, employment and development,” Armah said.
