Concern over rising cases of theft of selected human parts at cemetaries in Kwara State

Cemeteries in Kwara State are now being regularly violated by robbers and scavengers targeting bodies in graves for mutilation and theft of choice parts, The Guardian Nigeria reports.

According to the report, digging up fresh graves in Ilorin, Kwara State has become a daily occurence. The criminals mostly go for selected body parts such as genitalia, skulls, heart, liver and whatever else they may fancy in the decomposing body.
Sources told The Guardian, Muslim cemeteries at Oseere and public cemeteries at Oke-Oyi, a sleepy settlement adjoining Ilorin from the east, are the worst hit.

“We took the remains of a brother to the cemetery early this month and laid him to rest according to the Islamic rites. But when we returned to the grave two days after with the aim of putting concrete on the tomb, to our surprise we met a dismembered body outside the grave,” a source told The Guardian in Ilorin.Another source said:
“At Oke-Oyi, we went to pray at the tomb of our departed mother barely a year after her death only to see bits of the wooden casket on the tomb rather than inside the grave suggesting that some people might have tampered with the remains after burial.”Former Secretary of Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) Dr. Olusola Ajolore urged the government especially local councils, to intensify efforts at providing adequate security at the cemeteries in Kwara State.

“Apart from profaning the cemeteries, the act should be seen as criminal and ungodly. But we need more security at the cemeteries to stem the vice.”On his part, the Chief Imam of Ilorin, Alhaji Mohammed Bashir cautioned those directly or indirectly stealing from the cemeteries to refrain “as such would not escape God’s judgment in the long run even if law enforcement agents fail to arrest them and bring them to book.”

Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO) in Kwara, Ajayi Okasanmi said they have not received any such report but however, urged members of the public to volunteer information to the Police on the vice just as he threatened that local security guards employed to keep watch may henceforth be prosecuted for any recorded theft at the cemeteries.