Leaving the resting home for a departed soul in a deplorable state is not appropriate.
Cemeteries are homes for the deceased and need to be preserved for memorial purposes since families, sympathisers and friends pay reverence to the dead.
Mr. Kwame Agyei Asante, a Coordinator of the Bubiashie Electoral Area of the New Patriotic Party has bemoaned about the deplorable state of the Awudome Cemetery which is situated in the Okai Koi South Constituency, Accra.
According to the Coordinator, the cemetery can be built into an ultra-modern one which could generate revenue for the constituency to develop communities in the Okai Koi South.
He lamented that the Awudome Cemetery could be transformed into a place of tourist attraction for revellers who visits Ghana.
But its deplorable nature has been a haven for armed-robbers, wild animals including snakes among others and even a place for vagabonds to smoke weeds and do drugs.
The Coordinator, who also doubles as a Tax and Legal Consultant reiterated that, the Awudome cemetery is still run as an old cemetery which lacked initiatives to keep it in a form generating an income to the constituency and the nation at large.
“Awudome cemetery can be created into a VIP, Middle and Standard spaces of burial where preferences may be opted by sympatisers when burying the dead”, he stated.
Adding that, the cemetery should include lighting systems and planting of flower should be available to make it serene and clean.
Mr. Asante indicated that lack of streets lights within the area further emboldens the armed robbers to use Awudome as a hideout to perpetuate their evil and cruel acts.
On his part, the place could be turned into a business avenue where shop owners in front of the cemetery could engage in selling of wreaths and other things.
This, he said would create jobs for people in the society and added that, “development is not only about structures but human development is also key to nation building”.
According to him, the Awudome cemetery is within the centre of Accra and deserves the needed decency it requires.
He complained that the entrance to the cemetery revealed so many weaknesses on the walls and graves have been sighted so close to the entrance, funeral revelers found it difficult moving to the tombs of loved ones because graves have been dug inches close to each other.