… “Government warns families, friends and relations who may want to desecrate the grave of the deceased that the full weight of the law will be visited on them.
Okafor Ofiebor/Port-Harcourt
The Rivers State Government has described an online report that the body of the late Chairman of Asari-Toru Local Government Area, Odiari Princewill has been exhumed from the Port Harcourt Cemetery as baseless and untrue.
In a statement by Paulinus Nsirim, Rivers Commissioner for Information and Communications, the State Government said the grave where the deceased was interred is still intact as no one has tampered with it.
The Government, however, warned families, friends and relations who may want to desecrate the grave of the deceased that the full weight of the law will be visited on them.
“Security agencies have , therefore, been placed on red alert to ensure that only authorized persons come near the cemetery.
“Any unauthorized person found around the cemetery will be arrested and prosecuted”.
Also several enquiries from contacts at the Port Harcourt Cemetery revealed that the claim that the corpse of the deceased LGA Chairman has been exhumed and taken away is not true.
Though the security men guarding the facility did not allow anybody into the Cemetery on Saturday morning, they also denied the report.
Sources close to the family of late Princewill in Buguma who do not want their names in print said however said some members of the family are not too happy over how the late chairman was buried because “as a Prince he was supposed to be buried at Abbi-ama Cemetery in Buguma specially reserved for Kings, Queens, Princes and Princess from the royal family and no other place.”
However, family sources denied knowledge of the report that remains of the late Local Government boss was exhumed by armed men.
On whether the State has deployed more Soldiers to Buguma, they responded that “before the demise of Odiari Princewill, soldiers have always been in Buguma, it’s not clear if they had been issued with further directives. Burials had been banned across the state because of Covid-19”
Prince died on Thursday 21 May and was buried immediately at the Port Harcourt Cemetery.
But a report in an online publication on Saturday morning had indicated some men armed with guns had stormed the Port Harcourt cemetery to exhume corpse of the late Chairman.
The report quoted some eyewitness as saying the gunmen stormed Port Harcourt cemetery, shot sporadically in the air, headed for the site where the late LGA Chairman was buried ,dug-out the coffin and escaped with it through the Bille waterside jetty in the oil city.
However, reports from Buguma says crisis is looming as Rivers State government has sent troops to prevent entrance of the exhumed body of late LGA Chairman into the area