Ritualists invade Yaku community in Ogbomoso, rip open graves, then this happened (PHOTOS)
Jeremiah OYELEKE
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Yaku community in Ogbomoso, Oyo state, came under grievous attack Saturday as unidentified corpse thieves broke graves in the village with the intention of carting away dead bodies.
According to information gathered, the thieves stormed the community in the dead of the night prowling around and in the process succeeded in breaking the slabs of four graves.
“However, they failed in their nefarious mission,” Oniyaku of Yaku, Oba Ojewumi Sunday Oyeniyi, told ogbomosoinsightonline.com.
Continuing, the monarch affirmed, “Truly, they broke the slab of four graves but they were not able to steal any of the corpses, because when we checked the graves the corpses were intact, none was stolen. It is sacrilegious.
“It is possible they sensed some people were about to discover their evil deed and so ran away after breaking the slabs or may be they thought they should begin with the slab so that they would come back the next day to evacuate the corpses. However, we have taken steps to protect our corpses.”
The traditional ruler meanwhile blamed the modern method of burying the dead in shallow graves positing that in the past, corpses were buried deep and the pit piled with earth.
“In the past our fathers after burying their dead piled the grave with sand, watered it amply and pressed it tightly. Such a grave could not be dug to steal corpse. But nowadays, our people will dig the grave, plaster and even paint it and put slabs on it. Such grave is easier to access.”
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He further argued that the mode of burying the dead in the contemporary time negates the concept of the holy books.
“God says erupe ni iwo iwo o si pada di erupe (For dust you are and to dust you shall return) but today we concretize the grave rather than filling it with dust and instead of performing dust-to-dust rite it is flower we now put on the corpse.”
Oniyaku who disclosed he heard rumour that the corpse of his late father was also stolen during the invasion debunked the rumour stressing his father was buried in the sitting room and his grave filled with earth “thereafter l put water in it for weeks and pressed it continually to ensure maximum compression, so, anyone who attempts to evacuate dead body from such grave will have to pull down the whole house.”
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This is as he called on government to ameliorate the suffering of the people, noting, “there is too much hardship in the land and that is why people are resorting to various crimes such as this. Government should take steps to bring down prices of goods, there is too much suffering in the land.”
He informed the matter was reported at the police station which a source confirmed to ogbomosoinsightonline.com.
See the violated graves below:
