By Favour Goodness
The spiritual leader of the Igbo nation, Chief Rommy Ezeonwuka has decried the practice of depositing dead bodies in the mortuary, common among contemporary Igbo.
Loading ...Ezeonwuka made the observation in Oba community, near Onitsha, Anambra state on Wednesday.
He said that it had been revealed to him that the souls of the dead ones “incarcerated and dumped in mortuaries are behind the myriad of challenges facing Ndigbo, including violent crimes, youth unemployment, bad roads, poverty, dirty environment, diseases, hunger and fear, among others.”
Ezeonwuka also known as ‘Ogilisi Igbo’ warned that the souls of the dead bodies languishing in mortuaries across Igboland were fueling sit-at-home and inducing fear of the unknown in Ndigbo, who are now afraid to go about their normal businesses even when nobody is pursuing them.
He blamed Christians for all the problems facing Ndigbo as, according to him, the problems stemmed from depositing corpses in the mortuary.
Ezeonwuka insisted that the Christian practice of preserving dead bodies in ‘cold rooms’ preparatory to burial, contrary to the provisions of the Bible, had become rampant in Igboland, to the detriment of Ndigbo’s spiritual well-being.
According to him, the more common the “unwholesome” practice the more fears and dangers it would continue to cause in Igboland and among Ndigbo.
“In Deuteronomy 21:23, the Bible: God told the Israelites that they should not keep dead body overnight. Again in Matt 8:22, Jesus told his disciples to leave the dead to bury themselves, so where did Christians learn that dead bodies should be kept in the mortuary for burial ceremony?
“Let me as the spiritual leader warn that Ndigbo are in danger of facing more lockdowns and other problems if we don’t remove all the corpses in all the mortuaries in Igboland and then stop burial with ceremony,” the Ogili Igbo declared.
He said, “As birth comes so should death. Day of child ceremonial dedication comes later after birth. So also should burial of the dead take effect immediately after demise while the funeral ceremony comes later.”
Ezeonwuka lamented that many things in Igboland were already ‘facing death’ as a result of the dead bodies in mortuaries, noting, for instance, that some roads in the South East like Onitsha – Enugu Expressway were literally on death row.
“Onitsha-Enugu Expressway is dead at Amansea; Onitsha-Owerri Road is dead; Enugu-Port Harcourt Road is dead; inside roads in Onitsha and Aba are completely dead; some people’s brains are dead; brain of some Keke drivers in Onitsha are dead while some eat dead food like akpu.
“All these are consequent upon dead bodies in morgues in the South East. We have over 3m dead bodies in mortuaries across Igboland.”
“The souls of the dead bodies have to be committed to 6th feet below immediately to separate their souls from the living so that the living would be free and later on the funeral ceremony takes place.
That’s how God wants it to be, but Christians are doing the contrary thing for the reason best known to them. But, they have to stop it otherwise their churches will also face danger. Look at what is happening in Afghanistan where they butcher Christians like animals,” he said.
Ezeonwuka appealed to the Igbos especially traditional rulers and Predident-General of town unions and the churches to do justice to release the trapped souls at verious mutuaries in Igbo land.
“I bet you if not there will be no guber election in November on Anambra state because the ghosts shall possess the youths as IPOB to issue death treat and with fears nobody will come out.
“They did it during census and that’s why we are minority till today. That of no election in Igboland during former President Olusegun Obasanjo regime was stopped by me when I brought out Chief Ralph Uwazurike from keffi prison with help of Sen. Andy Ubah when he was with Obasanjo.
