It’s with strong indignation that we call on Akufo-Addo’s government to rectify the deliberate injustice meted out to the bereaved families whose dead bodies have been caught up in the Covid-19 pandemicContainment measures announced recently. The families are being forced to pony up huge sums of accrued mortuary fees, albeit unwillingly. This is causing discomfort to the affected families because the partial lockdown has adversely affected their sources of livelihood.

President Akufo-Addo, announced in his 7th address to the nation on Sunday, 19th of April, 2020 that Ghanaians should go ahead and bury their dead but to respect the measures in place by organizing private burials with not more than 25 persons in attendance. It was the expectation of the anxious bereaved families that the government was going to absorb the accrued mortuary fees as a result of the Covid-19 containment ban.

Authorities of KorleBu and Okomfo Anokye hospitals are urging families to claim their bodies for burial as their mortuaries are filling up. The dragging of feet by the affected families is as a result of their inability to raise funds among themselves and financial Institutions are unwilling to finance such uncertain projects without timelines to recoup their investments.

3GM aligns itself with the grieving families and call on President Akufo-Addo to consider their predicament and absorb the accrued mortuary fees in the name of equity and justice. The affected families have been forced to this situation unwillingly!

We want to believe that this blatant neglect by the President might not have been deliberate attempt to punish the already impoverished populace reeling under the adverse effects of the pandemic but has happened inadvertently.

While we commend the government in its effort to mitigate the effects of Covid-19 on Ghanaians by absorbing the Water and Electricity bills from April to June, we can’t sit or look on unconcerned while a section of our people are going through this most awkward predicament. We should be our brother’skeeper. 3GM believes the Government should not leave the affected families in limbo.

Carl Ebo Morgan writes