The Vice President,Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, has redeemed a promise of helping acquire a land to serve as a cemetery for Muslims in the Zongo community of the Bolgatanga Municipality in the Upper East Region.
This follows appeals that were made to the Vice President that ,the existing cemetery serving as a burial grounds for Muslims in the Zongo Community had been exhausted hence the urgent need for a new site.
NPP Upper East Regional, Nasara Cordinator, Alhaji Alhasan Sita, said, the past decades have been an eyesore for the Muslim community whenever deceased relatives were to be buried because,they had to face resistance from some community members at Akunkuriga over small parcel of land designated as a cemetery by the Bolgatanga Municipal Assembly.
He indicated that , there were instances they had to exhume dead bodies to be able to create space for fresh burials.
This persistent situation ,Alhaji Sita, noted has been a major worry to the Zongo Community since their dead relatives do not have a befitting resting place.
He said , several pleas were made to previous authorities to address their challenge to no avail.
“We made appeals to the Bolgatanga Assembly in 2015 for a new site but they were not able to get it because they said we should look for the land and they would pay but we never had the support though we had some lands” .
He therefore indicated that, the situation was drawn to the attention of Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia in one of his visits to the region which he pledged to support financially to acquire the land for the cemetery.
Scouting was done and they finally secured a 22.7 acre land at Zuarungu in the Bolgatanga East District. Negotiations were made and an agreement reached for the cost of land at GHS 468,000.
The project has been spearheaded by the Ministry for Inner Cities and Zongo Development from the office of the Vice President and a cheque of the required amount was presented to leadership of the Muslim community after a site visit with Press Men and sects of the Muslim groupings.
In an interview with A1 News , Alhaji Sita expressed gratitude to the Vice President for his intervention and added that ,the cemetery will serve as a burial ground to all deceased Muslims hence, does not belong to a particular sect.
“ This cemetery is not for a particular Islamic sect . It is for all muslims in the Bolgatanga Municipality because, all the leaders of the various sects in the Zongo community signed for this project” .
He therefore assured the Muslim Community that, more developments will continue to spring up under the leadership of President Nana Akufo-Addo if the NPP is maintained in power in the upcoming general elections.
Source:|A1radioonline.com|101.1MHZ|Samuel Mbura|Ghana
