Wake-keepings are losing their attraction in parts of the South-Tongu and Dangbe-East Districts in the Volta and Greater-Accra Regions, where thieves have of late been taking advantage of such occasions to raid villages.

Young men, who make such wake-keepings lively through drumming and dancing now stay back in their various villages to keep watch to avert raids by robbers.

Items stolen in the raids so far included clothing, beads, jewellery some of which had been handed over from generation to generation.

Last year, robbers looted Dordoekope, a village in the South-Tongu District, of valuables worth millions of cedis while the inhabitants were away at a wake-keeping in a nearby village. Akanyikope in the Dangme-East District was also raided in similar circumstances.

Mr Simon Korletey, the former Assembly Member of the Dikato Electoral Area in the South-Tongu District, said the situation was creating undue anxiety and pain to the already overburdened people in the communities whose only sources of wealth were valuables bequeathed to them by relatives.

As a result only close family members of the deceased now attend wake-keepings.

Burial ceremonies are however still being heavily patronised.

Mr Korletey said the robberies were aggravating poverty in some homes as some domestic animals bred for commercial purposes were also stolen in the raids. He, therefore, appealed to the government to strengthen measures aimed at curbing armed robberies, which were now being extended to the rural areas.