By Bisi Olominu

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It is natural for man to die and death is inevitable. Revelation 21:4 says ” There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away”. What the Bible means is that whatever pains, suffering and sorrow the dead has gone through while on the earth would no more be remembered by him or her when such made evening.
No wonder, Greta Zwaan said: ” Graves cannot contain my spirit. Though my body turns to ashes, I will rest in peace”.
Are the dead really resting in peace like Zwaan said above with the plundering of cemeteries in Nigeria by scavengers, ritualists in connivance with cemetery attendants to exhume dead bodies from their resting abode?
Uneasy calm now pervades communities of people having dead relatives in cemeteries across Ondo State with the discovery that over forty heads of corpses had been cut off by two security guards guarding an old generation church cemetery in Ondo town.
The suspects; Alhaji and his partner in crime had been digging the graves over times, harvesting the dead bodies’ parts and selling to their customers yet unidentified.
This dastardly act was even committed on Sunday, a day set apart by God to rest. But the lure of money, act of wickedness of the cemetery attendants made them to disturb the dead in their sleeps.
It would be recalled that on May 24,2020, four grave diggers were also arrested in Akure for being in possession of five human heads in Akure, Ondo State capital.
They reportedly sold the severed heads to ritualists for money making rituals.
The suspects who worked at the public cemetery along Oda road in Akure were caught while trying to severe the head of a newly buried corpse.
Trade in human’s parts is striving in Nigeria, though illegal, but has become a lucrative business in the country. Those craving for immediate and sudden wealth are colluding with cemetery workers to exhume people’s body for wealth, high positions in the society, for political appointments and patronages, even in search of long life and protection.
In the words of cemetery attendants arrested recently, he disclosed that livers, teeth, hearts, tongues, heads, thighs and the sensitive parts of human beings are in high demands across the country
He revealed that the hearts, livers could go for N300,000 to N500,000 while the tongues was of high demands.
Plato said that,: ” Only this dead have seen the end of war”, that could be in developed nations of the world, but in Nigeria the scavengers in connivance with the cemetery attendants are wagging a brutal, wicked and inhuman war on the dead.
The Bible said that: ” The heart of man is terribly wicked”. An anonymous author also said that, ” It’s a man’s own mind not his enemies or foes that lures him to evil ways”.
Speaking with The Hope on this issue, Pa Sunday Ademola said the actions of the cemetery attendants are sign of the end time. He berated the action of people looking for money at all cost, saying end therefore is gnashing of teeth, sorrow, pains and shame to families of those involving in the act.
The old man who revealed that he has instructed his children not to bury him at cemetery but his house, also berated government and churches for not taking care of the dead in the country.
His words: ” It is an aberration with the way and manner people care for the dead in the country unlike what it is in other climes. Many when they buried their dead would not look back again to care for the burial site. The burial ground looks dirty, unkept, with the whole place bushy, thereby giving opportunities to scavengers to ravage the place”.
” Again, the government is not doing much to take care of the public cemetery in the country. Despite getting money from the people before burial is done, nothing much is done to make the dead to rest peacefully by government. I have seen burial grounds in the developed world like United States of America, Britain, you can sleep there and some have even turned the grounds to tourists centres where wreath is laid on weekly basis. This is the kind of thing we should copy to Nigeria. It is quite a pity that the lust of wealth has engulfed the nation today and the only place to look for money is the cemetery where the bodies of the dead are mutilated. That is nothing but wickedness and those doing this will see the judgement of God”.
In his contribution, the Chief Imam of Okeodu, Akure, Alfa Alalaye enjoined government to make sure that those involved in desecrating the cemetery grounds should be made to face the wrath of the land.
He added that such action always attract the wrath of Allah. According to him, the crave for wealth in the country is giving Nigerians bad image, reason a Nigerian will travel abroad and will be scrutinized unlike other national of other countries.
Alalaye maintained that only mad people will mutilate dead bodies in the cemeteries and sell their parts for money or money rituals.
” They are looking for money, is that why the cemetery attendants would descend so low and uproot dead bodies from their burial grounds?
” Those recently arrested should be punished and let it serves as deterrent to others”.