A man has been dealt a cruel fate by life and is on the edge of losing it after he has been told by the family of his dead wife that he must marry the corpse of the woman or forget to bury her.
Mr. Adejo Emmanuel whose late wife, Margaret Emmanuel died after giving birth to twins is in serious trouble as the joy that once radiated on his face has been replaced with pain, sigh and trouble. The problem is that Margaret’s family in Ebonyi are demanding that Emmanuel fulfills a vital aspect of their culture before the burial ceremonies even commence.
According to The Nation, the problem facing Emmanuel is that before his wife’s death, he didn’t marry her. It is the typical story of many Nigerians who meet and start living together without consummating the relationship. As a result of his failure to have performed the marriage rites before the death of his wife, he has been mandated by the wife’s family not only to do the marriage rites, he will also have to do it with the dead wife’s corpse.
Emmanuel lamented while sobbing, “My life is like a balloon that was punctured with a pin, which immediately deflated it of all the joy. When a woman is pregnant the prayer is to hear the babies’ cries and that of the mother’s joy; but now the mother is gone, leaving the babies,”
Emmanuel has been barred from coming anything close to his deceased wife until the mandatory rites, rituals and and tradition are performed. Without that, they told him that he is barred from coming to his wife’s village in Akenze, Ebonyin State, let alone, burying the corpse.
Emmanuel who is from Igala and in his mid-50’s cannot understand the bizarre tradition and is pleading for help from his dead wife’s people.
Even at that, he does not have the resources to fulfill all the rites.
“I don’t know what went wrong and I don’t know my sin. Like any other fellow Christian, when everybody was preparing for Christmas, I was preparing as well, both for a merry Christmas, safe delivery for my wife and a successful naming ceremony for the babies; not knowing that I had another thing coming.” he lamented.
Narrating his wife’s last moment, Emmanuel said he suddenly saw his wife at Ugbagbo farm in Owo, where he was working unannounced.
“When I saw her, I scolded her and asked why she came all the way to the farm, because she was already heavy and ready to deliver. I also asked why she did not go to the hospital instead of coming to the farm to meet me. Of course, this was not her first pregnancy, as she had previously had four children before this pregnancy.
To compound matters, there was no vehicle to take her back to town that evening. We therefore waited till the second day.
However she went into labour in between and was delivered of the twin girls. She was attended to by Traditional Birth Attendants, but the placenta did not come out. We quickly got her into a vehicle and headed for the General Hospital at Oke-Ogun in Owo.
Unfortunately she did not make it, as she gave up the ghost at the entrance of the hospital. I noticed that her condition had worsened and she was getting dizzy. She thus got to the hospital, dead. To say the least, I was devastated. I became confused and almost ran mad. The nurses, who knew her, were surprised that she went to the farm instead of the hospital. She was well known at the hospital, because that was where she had all her children. She had also attended antenatal there.”
Little help has come the way of Emmanuel as regards his twin children. Out of pity, Honourable Segun Obasekola, a Councillorship aspirant in Igboroko Nla Street, Owo and landlord of No 44, Igboroko Nla Street, gave him the room he is occupying for free. He said: “When they approached me for a room and I discovered they had no money, I have no choice but to allow them use the room free-of-charge. I did not know anyone of them, but as a community leader and a man with milk of kindnes
A man has been dealt a cruel fate by life and is on the edge of losing it after he has been told by the family of his dead wife that he must marry the corpse of the woman or forget to bury her.
According to The Nation, the problem facing Emmanuel is that before his wife’s death, he didn’t marry her. It is the typical story of many Nigerians who meet and start living together without consummating the relationship. As a result of his failure to have performed the marriage rites before the death of his wife, he has been mandated by the wife’s family not only to do the marriage rites, he will also have to do it with the dead wife’s corpse.
Emmanuel lamented while sobbing, “My life is like a balloon that was punctured with a pin, which immediately deflated it of all the joy. When a woman is pregnant the prayer is to hear the babies’ cries and that of the mother’s joy; but now the mother is gone, leaving the babies,”
Emmanuel has been barred from coming anything close to his deceased wife until the mandatory rites, rituals and and tradition are performed. Without that, they told him that he is barred from coming to his wife’s village in Akenze, Ebonyin State, let alone, burying the corpse.
Emmanuel who is from Igala and in his mid-50’s cannot understand the bizarre tradition and is pleading for help from his dead wife’s people.
Even at that, he does not have the resources to fulfill all the rites.
“I don’t know what went wrong and I don’t know my sin. Like any other fellow Christian, when everybody was preparing for Christmas, I was preparing as well, both for a merry Christmas, safe delivery for my wife and a successful naming ceremony for the babies; not knowing that I had another thing coming.” he lamented.
Narrating his wife’s last moment, Emmanuel said he suddenly saw his wife at Ugbagbo farm in Owo, where he was working unannounced.
“When I saw her, I scolded her and asked why she came all the way to the farm, because she was already heavy and ready to deliver. I also asked why she did not go to the hospital instead of coming to the farm to meet me. Of course, this was not her first pregnancy, as she had previously had four children before this pregnancy.
However she went into labour in between and was delivered of the twin girls. She was attended to by Traditional Birth Attendants, but the placenta did not come out. We quickly got her into a vehicle and headed for the General Hospital at Oke-Ogun in Owo.
Little help has come the way of Emmanuel as regards his twin children. Out of pity, Honourable Segun Obasekola, a Councillorship aspirant in Igboroko Nla Street, Owo and landlord of No 44, Igboroko Nla Street, gave him the room he is occupying for free. He said: “When they approached me for a room and I discovered they had no money, I have no choice but to allow them use the room free-of-charge. I did not know anyone of them, but as a community leader and a man with milk of kindnes
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