IZUNNA OKAFOR
In what could be better described as atypical, the corpse of a woman has tarried for four years and three months in a mortuary in Anambra State, for reasons bordering on the ownership and sharing of her late husband’s property by her children.
The incident happened in Awka-Etiti in Idemili South Local Government Area of the State.
According to the woman’s daughter simply identified as Mrs. Okonkwo, their mother died in January 2020, and was deposited in the mortuary, where she has been since that year till date without burial.
She attributed the delay of the burial to the unyieldingness of their brother, one Mr. Isaac, whom she said, had insisted that the corpse would not be buried until the issues relating to the sharing of their late father’s property are resolved.
While noting that their late father had two houses in Aba, Abia State, the deceased’s daughter, who is married out, said she had made several efforts and even visited the said elder brother in Aba where he lives, to call him for a family discussion on how to bury their late mother, which all proved abortive.
She explained that their late father’s property and their documents are in a probate court in Umuahia, Abia State capital, while their elder brother insists that there must be settlement about the property or else their mother would not be buried.
She also revealed that the said brother had been repeatedly invited to the probate court for the settlement of anything relating to the property, but never showed up and only keeps insisting that the deceased would not be buried until the issues about the family property is settled.
With tears, the deceased’s daughter recounted how the brother constituted a source of worry and threat to their late mother when she was alive, including mismanaging and selling some of their late father’s property handed over to him after his death. She regretted that such unyieldingness is still being manifested by him, even now that their parents are no more, and even to the point of impeding their mother’s burial and abandoning her corpse in the mortuary for a whole four years and three months now and still counting.
Reacting to the situation, the Anambra State Commissioner for Women Affairs and Social Welfare, Mrs. Ify Obinabo, who comforted the deceased’s daughter, frowned at such act, especially the abandonment of the deceased’s corpse in the mortuary for such a very long time. She further assured her of her Ministry’s intervention on the matter, even as she also pledged to reach out to the said brother and ensure that the right thing is done.