The residents of Akotokyire protesting at the Community Centre
Residents of Akotokyire near the University of Cape Coast (UCC) in the Central Region have massed at the community’s centre where they are protesting the seizure of their cemetery by the University authorities.
They are demanding the immediate release of the cemetery, which they claim the University has encroached on for the extension of its Medical School.
The Police in Cape Coast have moved in to ensure peace prevail. The leaders are of the community are currently in a crunch meeting with the Police. It is not clear whether the University management has been invited into the meeting.
According to the residents, several attempts within the last three months to get the cemetery land back from the University in a peaceful manner has proved futile. “They are asking us to write a proposal but whether or not a proposal, we have to maintain our cemetery,” Nana Kojo Yeboah, one of two opposing chiefs in the community who is leading the residents told 3News.
The community is scheduled to burry four people on Saturday at the cemetery, hence the latest protest to get back the land ahead of the burial and funeral for their beloved ones.
They claim since the seizure of the cemetery by the University, they have been compelled to bury their natives in neighbouring communities, something the leaders say should stop. Nana Yeboah told 3News that although he gave the University a portion of land when management approached him, the cemetery was not part of the area allocated to the school yet management encroached on it.
Although he said they have performed some rituals and invoked curses on the land to deter the University authorities from accessing the place, they appear adamant.
The residents, mainly youth, believe the only way to get back their cemetery is through the protest.
