All basic schools in the Sunyani Municipality would be closed from Thursday, February 27 to Friday, February 28, the Ghana Education Service (GES) has directed.

This implies that pupils and students in both public and private basic schools in the Municipality will not go to school.

According to the GES, the directive had become necessary because of the ‘Doteyie’ (pre-burial funeral) and interment rites of the late ‘Omanhemaa’ (paramount Queen) of Sunyani, Nana Yaa Nyamaa Poduo II, scheduled from the evening of Tuesday, February 25 to Sunday March 1, this year.

The deceased died on Thursday, August 1, 2019 at the Regional Hospital in Sunyani. She was 64.

The late Nana Yaa Nyamaa Poduo II

Mrs. Theresa Kyere Boakye, the Sunyani Municipal Director of Education, announced the directive when she presented some items to the Sunyani Traditional Council on Thursday in Sunyani, to support the ceremony.

The Council presided by Nana Asor Nkrawiri II, the Omanhene (Paramount Chief) of Sunyani has since the beginning of the year been receiving funeral donations, ranging from food items, varieties of drinks, cloths and undisclosed sums of monies from individuals, corporate institutions, private businesses, religious bodies and love ones.

Mrs. Boakye explained that the “holidays” would enable the school children to stay indoors, while the Council performs traditional and customary rites and cultural displays to give befitting burial to the late Queen.

She asked parents to control their children and monitor them from roaming around in order not to expose them to avoidable dangers.

Nana Kwaku Sarbeng II, the Akwamuhene of Sunyani Traditional Area, and Chairman of the Funeral Planning Committee, thanked the donors and well-wishers for their support and contributions.

Meanwhile, all is set for the interment and final funeral rites of the late queen as mourners and delegations from all walks of life thronged into the Municipality.

The solemn atmosphere of the regional capital, which has its trees and electricity poles draped in red and black ribbons, signifying mourning, has changed the once lively municipality.

Though the official celebration is yet to begin, sounds of throbbing traditional dirges from local radio stations have filled the airwaves and many residents are in mourning clothes.

According to the arrangements, the body of the late queen would be laid in state at the ‘Boahen Korkor Fie’ (the palace of the Sunyani paramountcy) at Asufufu, a suburb in Sunyani from Wednesday, February 26 through to Friday, February 28.

A source close to the Funeral Planning Committee told the Ghana News Agency that she would be buried late Friday, but a burial service, likely to be led by the Most Reverend Mathew Kwasi Gyamfi, Catholic Bishop of Sunyani, would be held for the repose of her soul at the Christ the King Catholic Cathedral.

In keeping with tradition, the Sunyani Municipality would experience intermittent firing of musketries by traditional warriors at who would be combing round the Municipality.

Known in private life as Helena Akosua Yeboaa, the late Nana Puduo II was enstooled in 1973 at the age of 18 just after completing elementary education at the Nyamaa Girls Middle School in Sunyani and reigned for 46 years