Upper East regional NASARA Coordinator and Officer in charge of the Zongo Development fund in the Upper East regional Capital, Bolgatanga, Alhaji Mohammed Abubakar has said the first priority the Zongo Development fund will be used for in the Zongos in the regional capital is securing a burial grounds.
According to him, this has been a major challenge for the Zongos in Bolgatanga and there is the need for the fund to be channeled to securing a land for the burial of people who die in the Zongos.
He noted that the Zongos are mostly occupied by settlers and the tradition of each family having its own burial grounds in Bolgatanga makes it difficult for settlers to bury their corpses because the public cemetery has been full for over ten years.
He said “We have all this while agreed that we have a major problem confronting us here in Bolgatanga. The public cemetery that was acquired but compensation was not paid to the land owners have been full for many years. Anytime we have a corpse to burry you have to dig severally. Sometimes you even exhume bodies of some dead people before you move around to find a space where you can burry your dead body”.
He indicated that the Zongos had before the setting up of the Zongo and Inner City ministry already started measures to secure a land and therefore the Ministry has come to complement their effort and fast-track the process.
Asked on how securing a burial grounds will help in the development of the people of the Zongo communities, he said “what will be development if my child dies and I have to send my child to Wa? What will be development if someone has to send the dead body of their relative to their hometowns? It will mean that all settlers who make up the zongos will leave and the zongos will not exist so this is our utmost priority and that is what we will secure for our people”.
“We have decided that any amount that will be given to us, we will channel it into the purchase of a piece of land for our burial grounds. We have resolved that we want the Assembly to use this funds to help solve our number one challenge which is the lack of a burial ground,” he told Christopher Asima, host of Daybreak Upper East.
He indicated that the there will be other priority areas to be tackled with the fund adding that they will be drawing a four year development plan to help streamline all activities to be done with the fund.
“We will also make our roads better and provide some social amenities for the people of the Zongo. That will be done after our four year development plan for the Zongos so that by the end of the tenure of NPP we will see that a lot have been done for the Zongo communities.”
By: a1radioonline.com/Ghana
