The Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, on Wednesday, charged people of the Southeast to bury their dead ones within three days.
IPOB said the habit of keeping dead bodies in the mortuary for long was responsible for some of the challenges confronting the Southeast.
The group said Igbos should revert to the old ways of burying their dead ones early because it has a positive spiritual impact on the region.
A statement by IPOB’s spokesman, Emma Powerful, said the group would devise measures to curtail the excessive use of mortuaries across the Southeast.
Powerful said IPOB may compel mortuaries across the Southeast to shut down.
The statement reads partly: “The global movement and noble family of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) under the command and leadership of Mazi Nnamdi Okwuchukwu Kanu wish to announce to all Biafrans, friends of Biafra and lovers of Biafra freedom that it is high time Biafrans start burying our dead within three days as it was in ancient times. IPOB has gone too deep in the spiritual and finds out that keeping our dead ones for so long is contributing to the major problems of Ndigbo in these present times.
“Our ancestors were burying their dead ones within three days, and that is our culture, and it helped our ancestors spiritually. Igbos have a very rich and spiritually based culture which our ancestors maintained from the beginning of time. The present habit of keeping dead bodies more than three days and even months and years in the mortuary have had dire effects on our land and contributed to the spiritual weakness of Igbo Nation and of the entire Biafraland, moral decadence and all manner of evil that have taken root in our land.
“Now that IPOB has come to realise that this alien practice of keeping the dead on land rather than committed to mother earth has had a very negative impact on our people and upon our land. It has therefore become very imperative to urge our people to revert to the old practices that have a very positive effect on our well-being, both spiritually and otherwise.
“After some thorough investigation, we have come to the realization that all the reasons given by our people which cause the unnecessary delay in burying our dead within a short period are neither cogent nor important enough. These reasons are all man-made, mostly monetary conditions from the bereaved families, traditional rites, churches and Umunna. Some of these reasons were self-imposed, while others are just to punish the deceased families and make money from the dead. We, therefore, beg our people, religious leaders, traditional rulers and mostly the Umunna, both men and women, to stop tasking bereaved families as a condition before they are allowed to commit their departed loved one to mother earth. Some of our people have turned burial as a carnival and asking families to pay levies or debt for their dead ones is an abomination and must be stopped forthwith.
“As it was in the past, bereaved families should be allowed to commit their dead ones to mother earth while a date for the burial ceremony is fixed for a later date as well as whatever levies that need to be collected. But using reasons for non-payment of burial levies to stockpile dead bodies in the mortuaries is what IPOB don’t want again in our territory. Our people should revert to our healthy old tradition of burying the dead and do the needful at specific times within their reach.
“IPOB will engage Church Leaders, Town Unions and Traditional Rulers and Umunna in this regard. We are advising them to prepare their minds on this clarion call because IPOB will develop a strategy of curtailing the excessive use of mortuary in our region. This strategy may include compelling the shut down of so many mortuaries littered all over our land. The only dead bodies that can be allowed to stay longer in the mortuary are those in the court or under police investigation.”