[ 2017-02-13 ]

Mortuary men seize corpse at cemetery over GHc150 debt
There was drama at the Tema Community Nine
Cemetery on Saturday, when two mortuary men from
the Tema General Hospital aggressively removed a
dead body from its coffin at the cemetery, over
the refusal of the bereaved family to pay an
amount of GHc 150 as undertaking charges.

The incident, which was a surprise to many,
happened in the full glare of family members and
sympathizers of the bereaved family, who had gone
to lay their dead to rest.

In a state of shock, the sympathizers who had gone
to the cemetery to mourn with the bereaved family,
stood helplessly, as they looked on while the body
was removed from the coffin by the two angry
mortuary men.

Just as the coffin was about to be put into the
grave, the two mortuary men appeared at the
cemetery, and demanded the family of the bereaved
paid an amount of GHc 150 owed an undertaker, who
had dressed the body at the hospital prior to the
burial.

According to one of the mortuary men who spoke to
Citi News on condition of anonymity, their action
at the cemetery was informed based on the fact
that the family of the bereaved failed to pay an
amount of GHc 150 that was changed as service fee
for dressing the body and preparing it for the
family.

“The undertaker who dressed the body, charged
the bereaved family GHc 150 for dressing their
body; but the family decided to runaway with the
body after the undertaker had dressed it. So we
got wind of the incident and got angry hence our
action at the cemetery.

Though we took the body out of the coffin in an
attempt to bring it back to the mortuary for safe
keep until such time the money was paid. Some
sympathizers intervened later and paid us a
negotiable amount of one hundred Ghana cedis which
we accepted and allowed them to have the body for
burial.”

The mortuary man noted that “some families are
fond of taking advantage of us without paying us
(the mortuary men) our service charges, so what we
did last Saturday is to serve as a warning to
those who would want to take advantage of us and
exploit us in the course of our work.

We the mortuary men sometimes have our special
services we render to families whose bodies are
with us and some families often than not decide to
breach it. We shall not allow that again” he
said.

Source - citifmonline.com

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