By Iyiola Olalere
Ede (Osun): Flowerbudnews: Human Head Thieves have invaded the Muslim cemetery in Ede town in Osun State of Nigeria, cutting and carting away several human heads.
Reliable eye witnesses told Flowerbudnews that the incident occurred in the dead of the night when the head thieves, came in a group, scared away the guards and began their nefarious operation.
”They meticulously dug up each grave, brought out the buried dead body and then severed the head with knife,” a Muslim Scholar who saw some the headless body told Flowerbudnews.
The witnesses said that after severing the head of each dead body, ‘:the remaining body trunk was left unburied by the human head thieves.
‘They even forgot one of the knives they used in cutting off the head of the dead bodies,’:a source told Flowerbudnews.
”We counted about sixteen such headless bodies which had to be hurriedly re-buried in the graves from which they were exhumed by the hoodlums” the sources further told Flowerbudnews.
Flowerbudnews learnt that the incident had scared many Muslim families in the town from burying their dead ones in the graveyard for fear of the bodies being mutilated or stolen.
Some indigenes of Ede who pleaded anonymity,
attributed the upsurge in human head theft in the area to the unconditional release by the authorities, of one man who was caught red-handed and arrested in September last year (2022) by guards while cutting the head of a elderly woman freshly buried previous evening.
”The man is a popular vulcaniser in sawmill area of Oke Egan in Ede here, he was paraded by the authorities holding the freshly cut head of the buried woman, in his hand” the Sources told Flowerbudnews.
”Rather than been severely punished, the man, (whose name was given as Sumaila) has been released and ”is walking around confidently and shamelessly as if he had done nothing wrong ,” some of the indigenes lamented to Flowerbudnews.
A Muslim Scholars who spoke with Flowerbudnews on the upsurge in human parts theft, blamed a former Governor of Osun State, who revived and glorified idol worshipping with its attendant fetishism, ritualism and general human decapitation.
”These are known trademarks of idol worshipping which the former governor celebrated and promoted,” they declared.
Another Islamic Scholar, Ustaz Sulaiman Kolawole Isa told Flowerbudnews that
”In Islam, it a great sin to mutilate or decapitate the body of a dead Muslim”,.
”Anyone who does that is a criminal under the Sharia of Islam,” adding that ”a Muslim must be respected when alive and after death,” Ustaz Kolawole Isa stated.
The Islamic Scholar said that as a matter of respect and honour for the dead, ”islam prescribed ritual bath and burial etiquettes for the body of a dead Muslim”.
”Even after burial, we are not to forget the dead, as we are enjoined to continuously pray for forgiveness and ALlAH’s Rahman- mercy for them,” Ustaz Isa stated. (Flowerbudnews)
