From Okey Sampson, Umuahia
The people of Ndiolumbe, in Isiala Ngwa South Local Government Area of Abia State, have had peace over the years. That peace was threatened on August 2, through the action of youths from a neighbouring village, Umuaro, which drew the attention of not only Nigerians but also the international community.
In 2005, Prince Okwudiri Iheadindu, a native of Amaiyi, Nvosi, in Isiala Ngwa South LGA, bought a parcel of land at Umuode, Ndiolumbe, at the Umuaro/Ndiolumbe boundary and established a mortuary in the area. It was known as Prince O Medical Services but later changed to Prince of Peace Mortuary.
Iheadindu, a mortician at the Abia State University Teaching Hospital (ABSUTH), Aba, operated his business for years without any hindrance, until that fateful day.
Before the day and without the knowledge of Iheadindu, youths of the area were said to have placed radio announcements, urging people whose dead relatives were kept in the morgue to evacuate them or face the risk of losing them.
By this time, according to investigations, over 500 dead bodies were said to be in the morgue, and relatives rushed to evacuate them.
Those who went to evacuate the dead bodies of their relatives were said to have been forced to pay between N20,000 and N30,000 by the youths who had then taken over the premises of the mortuary and were poised to destroy it.
On August 2, the youths allegedly destroyed the mortuary and burnt four ambulances parked on the premises, on the allegations that the owner was involved in the harvest and sale of vital organs of the bodies deposited in the mortuary.
Iheandindu’s son was also said to have been arrested and put in ‘protective’ custody by the police as the youths were alleged to have threatened to kill him.
However, investigations revealed that there was more to the story.
When contacted, Iheadindu revealed the undercurrent of what led to the destruction of his mortuary. He said the allegation of harvestIng and selling vital organs of the dead was not true, but just an attempt to give a dog a bad name in order to hang it.
He said: “It is a mere allegation targeted at tarnishing my image and destroying my business. I opened it since 2005 and till date there has not been any allegation of such. Go to ABSUTH where I worked, my records are there.
“The problem that eventually led to the attack and destruction of my business started between two casketmakers who use part of my premises for their business and who have been at loggerheads. The other one was envious that his rival was selling more caskets than him.
“The other man, known as Ejima, from Umuaro, was accusing staff of the mortuary of directing customers to his rival, but such allegation, to me, was not true. Our duty is to take care of the bodies deposited in our facility, while it is in the hands of customers to determine where and who they will patronize or buy caskets from.”
He disclosed that the said casketmaker from Umuaro had, during a misunderstanding with his son, given him a bite on his chest, accusing him of directing customers where they should go and buy caskets.
The mortician further explained: “One of the casketmakers who is from Umuaro went and complained to a powerful man in his community. The man came to me and asked me to chase away the other casketmaker. He gave me two weeks to do that, threatening that if I failed he would make sure he put me out of business within the next two weeks from the day he approached me.”
Iheadindu said the other casketmaker went to the owners of the land, Umuode Ndiolumbe, and tabled the matter before them. The Umuode people, according to him, said there was no way a man from another village could dictate to them who should stay and who should not stay in their village and do business.
“After looking into their matter, the people I bought the land from asked me to allow the two casketmakers to continue doing their business in front of my premises.”
Iheadindu stated that, on August 2, the man from Umuaro carried out the threat he made in May: “There was a corpse of their relative. The said person died since February and no one had come for the corpse since then. It was on that fateful Tuesday that the man came with the youths. They met my son inside the office. They held him and tied his hands behind him,” he said.
The mortician added that the people went into the morgue, collected the body of their relative, before bringing the whole facility down.
“Apart from destroying the mortuary, the youths equally burnt four vehicles: two SUVs and two Volvo. The generators, borehole Sumo, Gee Pee tank that I use in my facility were all taken away by the youths. All the money we made that weekend, were taken away too,” he alleged.
While pleading his innocence, Iheadindu, however, revealed that there have been cases where rats ate some parts of the dead bodies deposited in the mortuary.
According to him, “There are some bodies rats ate some of their parts, but not their vital organs as alleged. But I must tell you, these are corpses that have been left in the mortuary for over 12 years now. I must also inform you that there is no local mortuary that doesn’t battle with rats, ours is no exception.
“There are dead bodies that have bee n there since 2006 and they are the ones that the rats ate. Some of the relatives of the deceased abandoned the dead bodies.”
Some villagers from Ndiolumbe corroborated what the mortician said. A community leader from the area, who didn’t want his name in print, said, on the day of the incident, he visited the morgue but did not see any of the dead bodies whose vital organs were removed. He, however, admitted seeing a dead body whose upper limb was eaten by rats.
