Gbenga Sodeinde in Ado Ekiti
Concerned about the hazards it poses to the health of the people mainly out of ignorance, a consortium of cemetery operators has urged the Ekiti State Government to implement the law prohibiting home burial in the state.
The Chairman, Citigate Park and Garden Limited, a private cemetery outfit in Ado-Ekiti, the state capital, Dr. Ayo Olaiya, canvassed this while speaking on behalf of his colleagues to journalists on the need for families to embrace the modern trend of burying the dead at specially designated places outside their homes.
The disease control expert said the consortium of cemetery operators in Ekiti State deemed it apposite to once again remind the state government that a law to that effect had been enacted during the regime of Governor Kayode Fayemi, but only waiting for implementation.
According to him, the group and other cemetery operators in the state are championing the agitation for burial outside the homes because the idea of private cemeteries came up when the former state Deputy Governor, late Mrs. Adunni Olayinka, died in 2012. And there was a problem getting a place to bury her.
He stressed that such embarrassing scenario informed the push for the establishment of private cemeteries in the state, which he underscored is not for money making but a legacy project that can last for several years.
Members of the group, he further pointed out, are having about four private cemeteries in the state-Citygate cemetery, Emirin road, Ado-Ekiti, Evergreen Final Rest Home, Ijero road, Aramoko Ekiti and the Bell cemetery, Iworoko road, near NNPC, Ado –Ekiti, adding that another will soon come on stream at Ikere-Ekiti.
Olaiya explained that the group is not crusading for this initiative out of selfishness, but considering the health implications such trend will continue to have on the health of human beings if not addressed or controlled with some legislations.
The public health specialist posited that the clamour by the group for the state to have private cemeteries is premised on the law made by the state government prohibiting burying corpses at home, which even as at then had a regulation backing it.
Going down memory lane, he disclosed that it was Governor Fayemi’s government that made the regulation, and the lands for the private cemeteries were sold to members of the group during the same regime.
He said the power conferred by Section 62 and 103 of Ekiti State Environmental Health and Sanitation law, No. 21, 2020 states that: “no person (s) shall be allowed to bury corpse in a residential area other than the designated public or private cemetery.
“Any person found burying corpse at home will be prosecuted and will still exhume the corpse under the supervision of the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources and that any person who fails to comply with section 3 of the regulation shall pay fine of one million naira or one year imprisonment.”
On the update from the government so far, Olaiya remarked that: “The last time we spoke with the government, they said they don’t have the land yet and that they don’t have enough personnel to enforce the law. We don’t want the government to sleep on the law they made. We have met with the Commissioner for Environment in the state to remind the present administration that there’s a law in place that says no burial at home.”
