It was a bizarre sight for the residents of Universal Road, by Medical Store Road, Okhoro axis of Benin City, Edo State capital, to behold as the decomposing body of a septuagenarian was discovered in an apartment, nine days after her death.
The most strange aspect of the sight is the fact that two children of the deceased Mrs Agbenese Oshoma, aged 78, knew of their mother’s death but kept the news to themselves for the whole nine days until the offensive odour from their house forced neighbours to barge into the house to behold the bloated body of the elderly woman.
Strangely again, the two children, Grace Osagede, a 60-year-old woman and her younger sister, Theresa Suberu, aged 58, told the neighbours that they were instructed by God not to disclose the death of their mother to anybody.
The two children, it was gathered, went about their normal daily chores inside the house while their mother’s corpse laid, rotting away as they made no attempt to embalm the body since they were “instructed by the Lord” not to tell anyone.
Neighbours, who initially perceived the stench from the building, inquired from the two sisters what the matter was and the deceased children dismissed such enquiries as nothing.
When the offensive odour became unbearable, the neighbours mobilised and barged into the building only to discover the decomposing body of the woman that everyone in the neighbourhood called “iye” meaning “mother”.
When confronted, the older sister, Grace, told the people that she had instruction from the Lord not to disclose the death of their mother to anybody, a position that was corroborated by her younger sister, Theresa, who said her elder sister asked her not to tell anyone as “instructed by the Lord”.
The neighbours and the landlord of the building were said to have arranged to have the corpse moved to a morgue while the police were called in.
When contacted, Edo State Police Command Public Relations Officer, PPRO, Kotongs Bello, confirmed the incident.
“The police evacuated the corpse. The sisters were not arrested because there was no reasonable ground to arrest them. Every family has the right to their culture and since there is no evidence to show that they compromised the law, there is no reason to arrest them,” the PPRO said.
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