Private Cemetery Operators Seek Partnership With Ekiti Government

By Mercy Arogunjo 

Some Private Cemetery Operators based in Ekiti State is seeking partnership with the Ekiti State Government just as the Ministry of Environment officials have also proposed a total ban on burials at private residences in the State to the government. 

The Private Cemetery Operators stated the above when they paid a courtesy visit to the Honourable Commissioner for Environment and Natural Resources, Erelu Tosin-Aluko Ajisafe, in her office at the State Secretariat in Ado Ekiti on Thursday, where she received in audience representatives of Operators of Private Cemeteries in Ekiti State led by Dr Ayodele Olaiya to discuss the need for the government led by Governor Biodun Abayomi Oyebanji, to establish a public cemetery in the State.

He said the enforcement of the law made sometimes ago by a Committee set up under Dr Kayode Fayemi’s administration on the matter should become effective. The specification of the bye-laws states that anybody who flaunts this law (who buries a corpse at home) will pay a certain amount of money.

He said the group is determined to stop the indiscriminate burial of corpses at homes, which, according to him, is not hygienic enough, thereby posing as danger threat to people living in the environment.

He added that the establishment of a public cemetery by the government of Ekiti will stop the act and further promote a clean, healthy, and epidemic-free environment that the Ministry stands for.

He advocated for massive publicity through radio jingles and other means of advertisements to educate the populace on the adverse effects.

The Honourable Commissioner, while responding, assured them of the full support of the Ministry, stating that their message would be delivered to Mr. Governor, who, according to her, frowns at indiscriminate burial of corpses at home as well.

In the meeting were the Permanent Secretary Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources, Mr. Babatunde Alokan, and other directors of the Ministry.