Ibrahim Mohammed, also known as Danburam, was apprehended by residents of neighborhoods in Yerima, a community in Akko Local Administrative Area in Gombe State, for attempting to encroach on a burial site completed.
According to the community, the cemetery was closed due to lack of space for members of the area to bury their loved ones.
Speaking further, a community member, Ibrahim Inuwa, revealed that locals had seen the alleged land grabber digging and allocating parts of the cemetery for sale.
Inuwa said, “Mohammed was apprehended by locals because he was digging old graves in the cemetery as part of the plots he had set aside for sale.”
While calling on security agencies and other relevant authorities to intervene, Inuwa urged members of the public to be vigilant, “to avoid conflict, we have been using the cemetery for 20 years for burial,” he said. revealed.
Also speaking, Abubakar Adamu lamented the suspect’s audacity, adding that they had seen Mohammed dig up bones and skeletons of deceased people from the site.
He said: “A month ago my daughter was buried in the cemetery, the action of the land dealer was a disrespect to the dead lying in the cemetery.”
According to him, had it not been for the intervention of community leaders, angry local youths would have beaten him saying that everyone in the area was annoyed that the cemetery was overrun by suspected land dealers.
“The cemetery was closed last month after my daughter was buried. It was closed because it is now full. However, it is inappropriate for anyone to encroach on them as the graves still contain the bones of deceased people,” he added.
For his part, the suspect, Mohammed, denied having dug the graves, he said that the “old cemetery” had been given to an Islamic group known as the “Da’awa group” in the Yerima community to serve as a graveyard.
He also said that the donor gave the land to the group for the construction of an Islamic school, adding that he was clearing the place for this purpose when members of the community grabbed him.
Contacted, the leaders of the ‘Da’awa’ group denied having knowledge of the donation of the land.
