By John Ikani
Ghana’s opposition Convention People’s Party (CPP) has announced plans to rebury the country’s founding leader Kwame Nkrumah in November.
The independence-era ruling party says Mr Nkrumah wasn’t given a fitting burial by the state following his death in April 1972, and that his “soul was still restless”.
Mr Nkrumah died 50 years ago while being treated in Bucharest, Romania, and was buried in his Nkroful village in southern Ghana.
His remains were later transferred to a mausoleum in the capital, Accra.
The CPP party said it would soon unveil a timetable of activities that would culminate into Mr Nkrumah’s “actual funeral”.
It did not offer details whether it plans to exhume and rebury Mr Nkrumah’s remains at another site.
Local outlet Joy News has published a video of the remarks by the party’s General Secretary Nana Yaa Jantuah on the proposed reburial:
It is worthwhile to note that Kwame Nkrumah died on April 27, 1972, while battling cancer. Dr Nkrumah was 62 years old when he passed away.
His last breath was not in the country he fought to help attain independence from British colonial rule. Kwame Nkrumah died in Bucharest, Romania.
Dr. Nkrumah was overthrown by a coup led by Col. Emmanuel Kwasi Kotoka on February 24, 1966. He was out of the country when his administration was ousted. Dr Kwame Nkrumah was also the country’s first Prime Minister.