The management of Ilorin Muslim Cemetery on Friday rejected the corpse of a 47-year-old civil servant, Mr Salami Adekunle, who was killed by lightning in Oro, Irepodun Local Government Area of Kwara.
Dr Abubakar Aliagan, the Coordinator in charge of the cemetery, disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria in Ilorin.
According to him, the cemetery management unanimously rejected the burial of the deceased following an instruction that the corpse should not undergo the normal Islamic prayers and bath.
Aliagan said while the deceased was described as a practising Muslim during his lifetime, Muslims in his vicinity refused to accept that his death was an act of God.
He said the performance of traditional rituals on Adekunle’s corpse after his death and the instructions warning against conducting Islamic rites on it was unacceptable to the management of the cemetery.
“If the late Salami will sleep in our Muslim cemetery, we have to do it in line with Islamic rites,’’ Aliagan said.
t Adekunle was on Thursday struck to death by lightning during a downpour
The deceased, who hails from Inisa in Osun, was until his death a staff of the Registry Department at the Kwara College of Education, Oro.
The Public Relations Officer of the institution, Mr Adesola Adewoye, said the family of the deceased would meet and decide on the next line of action to take on the burial arrangement.
