The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has urged the people of the South East to bury their dead ones within three days, as done in the olden days.
The group in a statement by its Media and Publicity Secretary, Emma Powerful, on Wednesday, said the practice of not burying dead ones within three days had caused ‘moral decadence and all manner of evil’ in Igboland.
The group said the only corpses that should be allowed to stay in the mortuary for more than the stipulated period were those under investigation or with court-related matters.
The statement read, “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 who caused 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.
Our people have turned burial into a carnival, asking families to pay levies or debt for their dead ones. This is an abomination and must be stopped forthwith.”
IPOB said it would engage church leaders, town unions and traditional rulers and Umunna in this regard.
It said it would develop a strategy of curtailing the excessive use of mortuaries in the region which might include “compelling the shutdown of so many mortuaries littered all over our land.”
“Igbos are shrinking in life because we dishonour the dead by keeping dead bodies in mortuaries for too long than necessary in these mortuaries. Any nation, tribe or family that keeps the dead without putting the corpse into the dust is causing a disservice to themselves.
“Owners of mortuaries in our land must start planning for another business. We are not against those engaged in the mortuary business but we are against keeping dead ones longer than necessary because we are planning to march and we cannot keep dead bodies unburied before we match,” the statement added.
