Even the lifeless are usually not spared. Ahead of Decoration Day right here subsequent week, greater than fifty (50) graves have been destroyed, as our bodies lie in open air after unknown males raided the Johnsonville Cemetery on Tuesday, March 4.
By: Emmanuel Wise Jipoh
Johnsonville, March 5, 2025/ Family members awoke early Tuesday morning to the horrible information of their family members’ graves being broken with corpses thrown in open as burial cloths and caskets for current burial stripped off.
Our reporter who visited the cemetery disclosed that over 50 graves had been damaged into, caskets, marvel tiles, and different useful burial gadgets stolen for gross sales, whereas lifeless our bodies have been left stripped bare.
The information comes forward of National Decoration Day subsequent week Wednesday, a day put aside to wash and enhance cemeteries throughout the nation.
Zogos, a gaggle of younger women and men who largely dwell off medicine whereas virtually dwelling in these graveyards, are being pointed at as potential suspects.
“We came here this morning to check on our grave, and we met our mother’s body lying down on the ground, no casket, and everything stolen,” Tenneh Ruster, one of many affected members of the family, informed our reporter.
“This is an unfortunate situation, and nobody can give account of it. But you can see here not only our mother’s grave. Look at the other body lying there, which is sorrowful,” she stated whereas pointing.
Other grieving households described the state of affairs as devasting whereas blaming neighborhood dwellers who dwell close to the cemetery for the act, which has the propensity of erupting violence- subsequent Wednesday.
“When we came here this morning, we met our (relative) graves, ripped, they ripped off the marvel stone, and took off the date of birth off the stone. And like this, it’s difficult to identify. Tell me, when it was Decoration, Wednesday, this could be serious noise, between families.” The grieving member of the family stated.
Usually, Decoration Days listed below are marred by violence, with households combating over graves as a consequence of lack of correct recognition of a deceased member of the family’s grave.
“If I come to identify my father’s grave and another person come, claiming the same grave, it will be ‘war, ’” Lorpu Johnson stated.
Other members of the family who buried their family members within the cemetery complained that their decorations had been thrown within the trash.
The affected members of the family have referred to as on authorities to instantly deploy safety personnel at Johnsonville Cemetery to keep away from a possible violent outbreak subsequent Wednesday.
Efforts to succeed in authorities on the Cemetery and Township Commissioner John S. Randell proved futile as his telephone rang endlessly. – Edited by Othello B. Garblah