The family of the late Apostle Dr Kwadwo Safo has asked the public to disregard funeral arrangements circulating on social media, insisting that no burial date has been approved by the family head.

Family Secretary of the Aduana (Kotoko) Royals of Essumeja, Dr Philip Siaw Kissi, said the family had been forced to speak publicly after attempts to resolve disagreements over the burial arrangements failed.

Speaking on Joy News Today on Tuesday, July 28, Dr Siaw Kissi said the matter was supposed to remain an internal family discussion but had become necessary due to what he described as misleading information in the public domain.

“We have done all that we can to bring, in fact, it's not our intention, but I'm not even happy standing here, I mean, in public, because this is supposed to be a discussion between the family, but it has come to that because there's a lot of things on social media, which of course need clarification,” he said.

His comments come after a dispute emerged between the Kantanka family and the Kristo Asafo Mission over the custody of Apostle Safo’s remains, the implementation of his final will and arrangements for his funeral.

Dr Siaw Kissi maintained that customary practices require the family, rather than a child of the deceased, to oversee funeral arrangements.

“When you come to customs and tradition, when there's issues concerning funeral, you know, it's the family that's supposed to take in charge,” he said.

He accused Honourable Adwoa Safo, daughter of the late Apostle, of acting outside traditional expectations by taking the lead in announcing funeral arrangements.

According to him, the repeated changes in proposed funeral dates contributed to the breakdown in discussions.

“We observed that any time she brings up a date, then when the date is coming close to, for us to, I mean, organise the programme, then she'll come and change the date. So, the family decided that, no, after the 25th, we are not going to change it,” he said.

Dr Siaw Kissi said the family had agreed on a date after meeting some of Apostle Safo’s children, but another funeral announcement was later made.

“We met our children, I mean, the children of Apostle Kwadwo Safo, just that not all of them attended, but we had the majority, that the meeting signed, that we should go ahead and do press conference, and announce to the government that we are going to have, what we call "Dɔte yie" on the 25th, June,” he stated.

He added: “Now, the moment our daughter heard of it, that evening, there was circulation on newspapers that the funeral is going to take place on the 30th, 31st, and even initially, it was said first, because later on, now, they are changing to the 8th of what, August.”

Dr Siaw Kissi insisted that any funeral date announced without the family’s approval should not be recognised.

“Every announcement, every arrangement about the funeral, it's supposed to be done by the family,” he said.

“If a daughter would decide to sit in her chamber, come out with a date, go around alone, call friends to escort her, to go and give invitation to people to come for funeral, it's not possible. It's not done anywhere.”

He urged the public, political leaders and traditional authorities to wait until the family has access to the remains and completes the necessary traditional processes.

“Any information that we are seeing on social media, we should disregard that information,” he said.