By Alagie Manneh
The body of an old woman has been exhumed in a cemetery in Bakau Saturday, three days after its interment.
Police and health inspectors then stormed the cemetery, inspected the body and ordered for its reburial.
Some in the town believed “ritual rites” may have been performed on the body but health inspectors said the corpse was intact.
“They did not touch or remove any part of the body, according to what I was told. They only exhumed it and left it there,” the councilor for Bakau, Lamin Dibba, told The Standard.
The old woman, described as cheerful and kind-hearted, lived around the market.
No one has been arrested yet, and it remains unclear who might have done the exhumation. But early speculations indicated that a man was seen and scared away from the cemetery in the early hours of Saturday.
An eye witness told The Standard that the body “lay uncovered” prior to the arrival of the health authorities.
“I saw the body. It was uncovered. It was lying on its back. And after the health authorities sprayed it, they reburied it,” the witness who begged anonymity said.
The Imam for Bakau Waasulung Kunda, Ebrima Sidibeh, wept over the dead body. “Fear petrified the Imam’s thinking,” a witness said.
The councilor said the discovery terrified the natives, urging all and sundry to be more vigilant.
“My advice is for people to up their guard because this ritual thing is getting crazier,” he said.
He suggested that security be put in place at the cemetery to prevent such occurrences.
“We need a guard and perhaps also a burglar proof gate. It’s the only way to secure our cemetery,” Dibba said.
