Have you heard of this gist?
A serious controversy is trailing the burial of the late
Dr. Ifeanyi Nwobodo jnr., the first son of Senator Jim Nwobodo, as his corpse
was missing on Friday.
It was gathered that the missing corpse might not be
unconnected with a disagreement between Sen. Nwobodo and the siblings of the
deceased over the location of his grave.
Nwobodo, who was Second Republic Governor of old Anambra
State, reportedly built a bungalow for his first son immediately after his
death and ordered that his remains should be buried within the compound, in
line with Igbo tradition that a first son, who dies before the father,
disinherits his inheritance.
But the siblings of the deceased insisted that their brother
must be buried in their father’s compound and not the house hurriedly built for
him after his death.
The deceased was an offspring of Senator Nwobodo’s estranged
first wife, Mrs. Mukosolu Nwobodo.
Although the family initially concealed disagreement over the
burial, the matter came to the open when dignitaries and other sympathisers
gathered in Nwobodo’s country home for the funeral and discovered that the
corpse was missing.
Among the dignitaries were Deputy Senate President, Ike
Ekweremadu; Senators Chris Ngige and Gilbert Nnaji, former Imo State Governor,
Achike Udenwa; former Anambra State Governor, Peter Obi, and former Information
and Communication Minister, Frank Nweke jnr.
The dignitaries attempted to mediate in the dispute, but both
parties in the disagreement refused to shift grounds.
Even the intervention of the Anglican Bishop of Enugu
Diocese, Bishop Emmanuel Chukwuma, who accepted to bury the deceased at nearby
St. Mathew’s Anglican Church, yielded no result.
Nwobodo’s children told the Bishop to forget the idea of
burying their brother in the church, saying that his remains must rest in their
father’s compound.
Following the development, the funeral could not hold as
dignitaries and other sympathisers dispersed.
A kinsman of Nwobodo, who spoke with our correspondent, said
that since the senator does not want his son to be buried in his compound, let
him hands of the burial and allow the community to handle it the way they want.
This does
not speak well of our dealings with the dead. I wish to get more versions of
this development.
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