Cemeteries in Kwara State are now being regularly violated by robbers
and scavengers targeting bodies in graves for mutilation and theft of
choice parts, The Guardian Nigeria reports.
According to the report, digging up fresh graves in Ilorin, Kwara State
has become a daily occurence. The criminals mostly go for selected body
parts such as genitalia, skulls, heart, liver and whatever else they may
fancy in the decomposing body.
Sources told The Guardian, Muslim cemeteries at
Oseere and public cemeteries at Oke-Oyi, a sleepy settlement adjoining
Ilorin from the east, are the worst hit.
“We took the remains of a brother to the cemetery early this month and
laid him to rest according to the Islamic rites. But when we returned to
the grave two days after with the aim of putting concrete on the tomb,
to our surprise we met a dismembered body outside the grave,” a source
told The Guardian in Ilorin.
Another source said:
“At Oke-Oyi, we went to pray at the tomb of our departed mother barely a
year after her death only to see bits of the wooden casket on the tomb
rather than inside the grave suggesting that some people might have
tampered with the remains after burial.”
Former Secretary of Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) Dr. Olusola
Ajolore urged the government especially local councils, to intensify
efforts at providing adequate security at the cemeteries in Kwara State.
“Apart from profaning the cemeteries, the act should be seen as criminal
and ungodly. But we need more security at the cemeteries to stem the
vice.”
On his part, the Chief Imam of Ilorin, Alhaji Mohammed Bashir cautioned
those directly or indirectly stealing from the cemeteries to refrain “as
such would not escape God’s judgment in the long run even if law
enforcement agents fail to arrest them and bring them to book.”
Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO) in Kwara, Ajayi Okasanmi said
they have not received any such report but however, urged members of the
public to volunteer information to the Police on the vice just as he
threatened that local security guards employed to keep watch may
henceforth be prosecuted for any recorded theft at the cemeteries.
