Clear Mortuaries In Southeast, It Is Unbiblical, Alien To Igbo Culture To Preserve Corpses, Ogilisi Says
Rommy Ezeonwuka, the Spiritual Leader of the Igbo nation has renewed the call on Igbo people of the Southeast to bury their deceased loved ones timely and ensure complete evacuation of all dead bodies from mortuaries for burial.
Ezeonwuka, who is also the founder of Ogilisi Foundation, an Igbo Socio-Cultural organisation made the call in a Statement made available to newsmen.
He blamed the insecurity and social upheaval in the Southeast on the activities of Zombies who took flesh from over a million human corpses deposited in mortuaries in various parts of Igboland.
He quoted Numbers 19:11-22 which condemned touching of corpses and gave directives on what to do when somebody comes in contact with a corpse.
He said the restless ghosts of all the unburied corpses littered all over the mortuaries are angry that they assume human bodies to torment the living until they are buried for their spirits can go back to God the creator and rest in peace.
According to him, Christians should know that both old and new testaments of the Bible condemn fondling with dead bodies.
“Matthew 8 : 22 said let the dead bury themselves while we care more for the living than the dead.
“Numbers 19, from 11 to 19 it says, the one who touches the dead body of any person will also be unclean for seven days, that one shall purify himself with the water on the third day and on the seventh day, and then he will be clean; but if he does not purify himself on the third day and on the seventh day, he will not be clean.
“Anyone who touches a dead body, the body of a person who has died, and does not purify himself, defiles the tabernacle of the Lord; and that person shall be cut off from Israel. Since the water for impurity was not sprinkled on him, he will be unclean; his uncleanness is still on him.
“This is the law when a person dies in a tent: everyone who comes into the tent and everyone who is in the tent will be unclean for seven days, and every open container, which has no cover tied down on it, will be unclean.
“Also, anyone who in the open field touches one who has been killed with a sword or one who has died naturally, or touches a human bone or a grave, will be unclean for seven days.
‘Then for the unclean person they shall take some of the ashes of the burnt purification from sin and running water shall be added to them in a container.
“And a clean person shall take hyssop and dip it in the water, and sprinkle it on the tent, on all the furnishings, on the persons who were there, and on the one who touched the bone or the one who was killed or the one who died naturally, or the grave…,” he stated.
Ogilisi said unless corpses in the mortuaries all over Igboland were buried as soon as possible, they would continue to roam the streets, market places, causing uncontrollable chaos as witnessed today.
He said the sit-at-home order by various Biafra agitation groups which had crippled the economy and social life in Southeast was one of the evil manifestations of zombies.
He said Christians had lessons to learn from Muslims bury their dead within 48 hours, no matter how highly placed, instead preserving them for months in mortuaries before commiting the remains to earth to let their soul rest.
He said, “the wandering restless ghosts will at a stage afflict our youths and begin to push them into violence, crimes and mischievous characters and in most cases, the ghosts of the dead bodies would assume human bodies and begin to torment the living, as we are all witnessing today”.
“This is the major cause of the problems we have in Igbo land today. As the spiritual leader of Igbo land, I saw this thing a long time ago and I have been shouting about it.
“Trapped corpses in Igbo Land attract decaying of the environment also attracts.hatreds and cultism to the youth
“We should evacuate all the corpses in the mortuaries soonest and bury them so that their spirits will go back to God. If not, their spirits will continue to hang around, just like when we plant seeds in the ground, the seed will die and germinate.
“If you do not plant a seed, it won’t die and germinate, rather, it will continue to constitute an obstacle with its attendant nuisance value”.
“The Nigeria Christians and the Igbos in particular must allow the departed souls of their loved ones to return back to God the creator immediately after its body on earth dies by burial or cremation within 48 hours.
“Have Igbo asked themselves this pertinent question as to why all these anomalies are befalling them. Did it happen in the 1970s and before the war when there were no mortuaries? The answer is capital No”.
“Let me once again call on the governors of Southeast, the Ohanaeze-Ndigbo and the traditional rulers in Igbo land to order for the evacuation of the dead bodies in our mortuaries to restore normalcy in the land”.
