There was confusion in Amansea town of Awka North Local Government Area of Anambra State over the disappearance of the corpse of the oldest man in the community, Pa Micheal Nwanwuba Onyekwelu, from a mortuary.
Late Pa Onyekwelu, aged 115 years, who was the oldest man in Amansea town, died, and his corpse was deposited at one Regina Hospital in the town to pave the way for burial ceremonies at the deceased’s family house in Orebe community in the local government area.
Coincidentally, arrangements for the burial rites had been concluded with a wake keep to be conducted by sympathisers on Thursday at the family house. At the same time, church service, as well as final internment, was supposed to hold last week Friday.
However, members of the community and sympathisers, including hordes of clergies, had converged at both the community and Saint Anthony’s Catholic Church Amansea, the venue for the burial service, to discover the corpse was missing.
Investigations revealed that another family from a yet-to-be-identified community in Nsukka, Enugu State that deposited the dead body of their father mistakingly took away the remains of late Pa. Onyekwelu and had since buried him two weeks ago before the actual bereaved family came for the corpse last week Friday.
It was further gathered that Pa. Micheal Onyekwelu, while alive, had warned his children not to deposit his corpse in the mortuary when he died.
But as fate would have it, one of his sons, who is a priest of the Catholic Church (names withheld), was said to have allegedly taken their father’s corpse to the mortuary so that a befitting church service and burial rites could be accorded to the father before the unexpected happened.
Hundreds of sympathizers who thronged the community and church premises to pay their last respect to the late centenarian were said to have left for their homes disappointed and in awe. Several canopies were quickly emptied as the news of the strange development made rounds into the community.
The Bishop of the Awka Catholic Diocese and many of the Reverend fathers, Reverend sisters and others were shocked at the development. Despite the incident, the food and drinks were served to those who stayed behind.
Efforts to get any of the man’s children to speak on the incident failed as the bereaved family members were busy trying to resolve the impasse with the Nsukka people to exhume the body of the deceased for proper burial. Further findings showed that the body of Pa Onyekwelu was finally exhumed and taken back to Orebe community for burial last Saturday evening.
