IPOB Attributes Igbo Problems To Prolonged Burial Practices

The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Wednesday, said prolonged burial practices of the dead are behind problems bedeviling South-East states. The pro-Biafra group, therefore, told Ndigbo to within three days bury their deceased to avert the negative consequences.

Emma Powerful, the head of media and publicity of IPOB, stated this in a statement.

IPOB however exempted corpses under police investigations/litigations from quick burial.

The statement read in part, “Our ancestors were burying their dead ones within three days. 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 has had dire effects on our land and contributed to the spiritual weakness of the 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 committing it 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 had very positive effects upon our well-being, both spiritually and otherwise.

“After some thorough investigation, we have come to the realisation that all the reasons given by our people which caused the unnecessary delay in burying our dead within a short period are neither cogent nor important enough.”

IPOB described reasons advanced by Ndigbo for prolonging burials ‘man-made mostly monetary conditions from the bereaved families, traditional rites, churches and Umunna’.

The group regretted that Ndigbo had ‘turned burial into a carnival and asking families to pay levies or debt for their dead ones’, adding that such practice ‘is an abomination and must be stopped forthwith’.

Mr Powerful added, “As it was in 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.”