Ijaw Group Faults David-West On Cremation AS controversy continues to trail, the cremation law recently passed by the Lagos State and signed by Governor Babatunde Fashola, the Ijaw Monitoring Group (IMG) has described the statement credited to Prof. Tam David-West asking his children to cremate him after his death as an abomination in Ijaw land. In a statement signed by the Coordinator of the IMG and former Publicity Secretary of Ijaw National Congress (INC), Comrade Joseph Evah, the Ijaw group lamented that “a prominent son of Ijaw land with deep knowledge of the culture and custom of the Ijaw people is demanding the unthinkable.” Noting that the demand would be resisted, IMG said that Ijaws were “shocked and embarrassed that a world-class professor from our homeland made such a demand.” The group noted that “the burial custom of the Ijaws is traceable to the origin of mankind and has fundamental and non-negotiable rites. We shall continue to maintain its sanctity till the end of time.” The statement added: “We want our Professor to know that what he stated in his will to take place during his funeral will never happen in Ijaw land. “If he wants to be cremated, he should go to India and wait till the end. His academic records are first- class anywhere in the world and he is one of the few global citizens from Africa produced by Ijaw nation but demanding for a funeral of abomination for himself is taking radicalism too far and must be resisted. “We hereby ask the children of David-West to reject and ignore their father’s will on the type of funeral he preferred.”
Posted on: Tue, 23 Jul 2013 22:26:20 +0000