By Okechukwu Keshi Ukegbu
The nearest I have come face to face with live reality of the legendary Fela Anikulapo Kuti’s title” Double Wahala for Dead Body” was when my step- mother, my father’s only surviving wife was buried around 2006. On our way to the mortuaryto bring the corpse back, we encountered a very gory scene- a corpse was nearly burnt beyond recognition- if there was any usefulness of recognising a dead body, because the Bible tells us that the dead knows nothing.
The ambulance conveying the corpse to one of the neighbouring states had caught fire, leaving in its trail a charred dead body. Someone in our convoy cracked a funny joke, may be as a comic relief, that it would have been better for all the remains to go in flames to save the bereaved family further costs. This aptly captures John Pepper Clark’s poem”Casualties” where he classically captured those who lost their limbs in the course of executing the Nigerian civil war, whether from the federal government troop or the Biafran troop as” awaiting burial by instalment.
Last Saturday, and untold calamity visited Ebenebe Community in Anambra State. There was a huge desecration of the land, like ” the Murder in The Cathedral”. A burial which could have served as a solemn assembly, where the people gathered to mourn their dead, Ozor Chibuike Joseph Chukwuma, albeit in his prime, unfortunately begot more corpses, leaving in its trail tales of woes, sadness, and gloom. If common sense had prevailed, the community could relied on the biblical injunction for the” dead to bury the dead” and this calamity could have been averted. Indeed, the dead have given birth to multiple deads, and Ebenebe Community and others affected are not happy with it.
There were sporadic gun shots by reportedly a six-man squad, and close to a score were felled when the gunshots ceased and stocks were taking.Unconfirmed reports have it that the community was earlier warned not to engage in fanfare when burying the dead because it was alleged that he was a wicked man who facilitated the early exit of some souls to the great beyond. And therefore according him him a befitting burial was seen as an aberration. But those early warning signals were not heeded to, and this has cost some innocent families the lives of their loved ones.
There are strong indications that the massacre was cult- related. A witness reportedly said that the cult members of the deceased was performing some final rites when the gun men arrived the venue and started shooting sporadically.This has renewed calls to proffer a lasting solution to cultism and related killings and crimes which are fast becoming anorm rather than a vice in our society.
Infact, our communities are almost taken over by cult activities, and this has scaled up crimes such as rape, murder, stealing, drug abuse, among others. Our streets are no longer safe. Cult activities are no longer secret. If this trend is not halted, as a matter of urgency, our communities may be sacked by cult groups. The time to act is now when the water is ankle deep before it gets neck deep. A stitch in time saves nine!
