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Cemetery
crisis!
Corpses litter Onitsha
From Aloysius Attah
Sunday, June 28, 2009
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•Skeletons
and coffin at a section of the cemetery.
Photo: The Sun Publishing |
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Musicians can be likened to prophets because most times they predict
what will happen afterwards. At the beginning of the new millennium,
Endy Nze dominated the airwaves in the South East of Nigeria with
his Lord and Lamb album, in which he sang: Curiosity, sometimes,
could be wise as the time is clouded in the dark
Viewing the situation, you can see the helmsman is in the game.
Stop him; stop him if you want our children to live longer.
Stop him, stop him, there is hunger everywhere and tears drop.
Stop him, there is no more space in the graveyard. Stop him now!
Today, his prediction has become a reality in Onitsha, Anambra State,
where the dead can longer rest in peace because there is no more
space for them to be buried.
In fact, at the Onitsha cemetery, the spirits of the dead are angry.
Those with "spiritual" eyes can see them hovering all
over the place.
A visit to the Onitsha public cemetery along Oraifite Street, Awada
near the MCC junction, evokes horrible feelings and psychological
trauma. Not only is the dead treated with contempt but the place
also poses a serious health hazard to the people.
Inside the cemetery
Apart from a sign post, now overgrown with weeds, erected by an
unknown evangelist, with the inscription: "Hello passersby,
sometimes we are like you; some day you will be like us," every
other thing from the entrance to the inside speaks of total neglect
and collapse. The entrance gate hangs on just one hook to the side
of the pillar while the blocks, which hitherto formed a fence, have
all virtually cracked and given way.
Human skulls and other parts of the skeleton litter everywhere.
Abandoned child-size coffins adorn one corner of a shanty-like room,
which serves as office for the burial ground attendants. Corpses
at various stages of decomposition were also seen.
Sunday Sun also saw half-burnt corpses with heaps of empty cartons
on top, which will serve as fuel for complete incineration later
in the evening.
Confession
Sunday Sun reporter
met two frail-looking attendants in the graveyard. Between intermittent
spitting of saliva and covering their nose with a cloth because
of the stench oozing out of the place, they initially refused to
speak. But when this reporter, posing as a bereaved man whose sister
lost her five-year-old son, they confessed that they do not often
bury people in graves anymore because the cemetery was full. According
to the attendants, anywhere you dig, you must exhume either fresh
bodies or human skeleton.
They lamented that they have not been paid salary for months but
only survive on the token from people that bring their dead babies
for burial. When asked how much they collect per corpse, one of
them volunteered that the amount ranges between N2500 and N3500.
How deterioration set in
Sunday Sun learnt
that the cemetery previously covered a large expanse of land between
Oraifite Street, Ilodibe Road, Njubigbo Street and some parts of
the army barracks. There was enough space in those days for people
to bury their loved ones and even erect monuments with flowers.
But with urbanisation and the penchant for erecting storey buildings
by Onitsha shylock landlords coupled with the proclivity for material
aggrandisement by a former governor of the state after the country
returned to civil rule in 1999, the whole area was sold out to property
developers, who began to erect residential houses on top of graveyards.
Now what remains of the cemetery is not up to a plot of land while
mechanic workshops, multipurpose stalls and residential buildings
surround the graveyard.
Impunity of uniform
Our investigation also revealed that policemen bring most of the
corpses dumped inside the graveyard. The attendants also confirmed
to us that policemen from the Special Anti-Robbery Squad at Awkuzu
and from other divisions in the state command bring corpses there.
A furniture maker in the area, who identified himself as Mr Solomon
Anih, confirmed this development and deplored the abuse of their
rights by the police.
Describing the situation as unbearable, he said: "My brother,
what we see here is terrible. I regret paying for this store. Every
day we are in agony and pain because of the stench from the cemetery.
But the worst is the apprehension we face as a result of the activities
of the police. Ninety per cent of the corpses dumped inside there
are brought by the police. They carry dead bodies here, which they
allege were shot during robbery operations and force us at gun point
to bring them out of their vehicle and bury inside the cemetery.
In most cases, what we do is just use little heaps of sand and cover
the bodies because every space there is full. We don’t know
why they have to force us to become emergency undertakers for no
just cause."
For the five minutes our reporter spent with Mr Anih, he sprayed
air freshener more than eight times to douse the odour.
His revelation also tallies with the alarm raised by some civil
society organisations in the state during the last World Human Rights
Day when they alleged that the police in Anambra engage in extra-judicial
killings.
Unwritten rule
The unwritten law, which every passerby along Oraifite Street must
observe, is cover your nose and cease your breath for some minutes
while passing through the cemetery. From Okada riders, motorists
and those on foot, this reporter saw everybody scampering with hands
on their noses.
SOS to government
Residents and store owners, who spoke to Sunday
Sun, appealed to the government to do something
fast to save them from impending epidemic and economic strangulation.
Mr Mike Ekenta, a local shoe manufacturer, said they have lost their
customers because none of them can stand in the area for one minute
not to talk of buying or negotiating for any good.
Another resident, Mr Ikenna Agunwa, also lamented that life is no
more enjoyable for them and appealed to the government to relocate
the cemetery to another area.
According to Dr Kingsley Okoro, the Medical Director of Hillcrest
Hospital, Onitsha, the inhaling of such noxious odour has serious
health implications for the people.
Buck-passing and government’s response
In Section 7 and in the Fourth Schedule (d) of the 1999 Constitution
of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the establishment and maintenance
of cemeteries fall under the purview/functions of local governments.
Ironically, no council election has taken place in the state in
the last seven years. The local governments have been under caretaker
committee/head of service administration since 2002 without an elected
council chairman.
When Sunday Sun visited
the office of the Head of Service of the Onitsha North Council,
Dr Aloy Ezeabasili, he declined comment as, according to him, "we
(council heads) have been barred from talking to the press."
Rather, he directed our reporter to the Anambra State Environmental
Protection Agency (ANSEPA). The chairman of the agency, Dr Emma
Udeakpe, when he called back on phone, explained that the incumbent
Peter Obi administration was not resting on its oars to ensure Onitsha
and other parts of the state were totally transformed.
He blamed the present state of the cemetery on the maladministration
of previous governments in the state, which he said paid lip service
to the needs of the people.
"The ANSEPA, Ministries of Environment and Local Governments
have reached an advanced stage of securing a better site for a new
cemetery. With the increase in urbanisation, the cemetery will be
located outside Onitsha, which will be easy for people to locate
because of the good network of roads presently on ground in the
state," Dr Udeakpe said.
When the police was contacted over the allegation of extra-judicial
killings and dumping of corpses in the cemetery, the new Force Public
Relations Officer in the state, Mr Emeka Chukwuemeka, said he was
not aware of such activities by the men of the state command. He
also promised to investigate and take necessary action if confirmed.
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