A rather bizarre and mysterious incident has caught the attention of locals in the village of Jangulu, located on the Nasarawa-Oweto Expressway.
A local herbalist, Galo Onyejodu, who died in 2009 and was buried by the roadside, was discovered to have a perfectly preserved corpse even after 14 years in the ground.
According to Nations report, the body was exhumed during construction work to rehabilitate the road. The construction company responsible for the work was GITTO, who accidentally uncovered the burial site with its bulldozers.
The discovery came as a complete shock to the community, and many are baffled by how the corpse could remain intact despite being buried for so long. There was also no stench coming from the 14-year-old corpse, which added to the mystery.
As expected, the discovery of the body caused a sensation in the local community and surrounding areas, and many people flocked to the scene to see it.
However, the community leader, Ayambuga, who had witnessed the burial in 2009, was insistent that the body be reburied as soon as possible.
He considered the site where the body was found to be a sacred place, and was concerned that it had become a tourist attraction. The body was then quickly reburied at another location.
The village head, Ayambuga, described the late Onyejodu as the most powerful herbalist ever to emerge from the community as he proffered solutions to virtually all the health and other kinds of challenges that were brought before him.
He said: “It did not matter the distance from which the person with the problem or situation comes from. All you had to do was to believe in him.
“He offered services to those in need of spiritual assistance, not minding the severity of your situation or distance.
“As long as water, sea, ocean, lake, river, sand, and so on were nearby, your problems were as good as solved.”
Ayambuga remembered that Onyejodu’s powers had come to him suddenly, as one day he simply awoke with the ability to make predictions and prophecies.
In the days leading up to his death, Onyejodu was said to have spoken to his wife about returning to her place of birth if he died before the age of 60. Sadly, he did pass away before reaching that age.
According to the instructions he had given, Onyejodu was buried by the roadside and his body was not treated in any way.
He said, “On the day he died, he was not sick. He had a running battle with some militia herdsmen on his farm.
“They shot at him several times but nothing happened. He killed about five of them, but they managed to grab him physically and slaughtered him when the several bullets they fired at him did not work.
“He was actually a target of the herdsmen for quite some time.
“We adhered to his wish and buried him the next day.
“His life style was generally that of a gentle man. He was also a great hunter, especially at night.”
Speaking to newsmen in Lafia, a Reverend Father, who preferred anonymity, said he was short of words about the discovery, especially because Onyejodu was neither a Christian nor a Muslim.
“If he was a committed Christian, I would have described his body as sainthood in Christianity.”
A medical doctor, Dr Yakubu Abdulaziz, who runs a private hospital in Lafia, said it is unusual that a corpse would fail to decompose many years after it is buried.
Citing conditions that could make a corpse not to decompose for a long time, he said it could be due to embalming or an anaerobic environment which slows down decomposition because the bacteria responsible for much of the tissue breakdown need oxygen.
Another condition that could make a corpse not to decompose over a long period, he said, is keeping it in an airtight container, which means the body is not exposed to water, moisture, acidic soil or insects.
He said: “It is actually very difficult to ascertain such a situation in Africa. The reasons have actually not been scientifically proven apart from the above mentioned factors.
“In this particular case, the body was not embalmed. So it leaves one to be curious as to whether there were other cleansing rituals or preparations that could affect the decomposition of the corpse.”
He said the case of the deceased native doctor is not a common occurrence, particularly in Africa.