- “Unless a magistrate or medical officer in writing order otherwise, nobody of a deceased person whose death is registrable or a stillborn child whose birth if he had been born alive would have been registrable shall be buried or otherwise disposed off until a certificate is granted by the Registrar or an order is made by the coroner.
Council of Imam and Ulama has appealed to Governor Nasir Ahmad el-Rufai not to assent to the ‘Burial Bill’ passed by the State House of Assembly. The Council in a communique issued at the end of it’s general meeting held in Kaduna Thursday stated that the entire Muslim Ummah is condemning the provision of the bill. The communique which was signed by the council Secretary, Yusuf Yakubu Arrigasiyyu and Chairman Shaykh Ibrahim Nakaka respectively said the bill is not in conformity with the teachings of the Prophet. The communique further explained that despite the council’s earlier objection to the bill, the State Assembly went ahead to pass it into law. The bill which was passed by the State House of Assembly was to regulate the burial of persons whose deaths are registrable and stillborn children whose births if they had been born alive would have been registrable.
It would be recalled that, the burial bill when it comes into play, the birth of a child and person shall be registered by the registrar of births and deaths of the local Government area and that immediately upon registering any death or receiving information of birth of any stillborn child, the registrar shall issue a certificate in form A of schedule to the law for the burial of the body.
“Unless a magistrate or medical officer in writing order otherwise, nobody of a deceased person whose death is registrable or a stillborn child whose birth if he had been born alive would have been registrable shall be buried or otherwise disposed off until a certificate is granted by the Registrar or an order is made by the coroner.
“any person contravening the provisions of this subsection shall on conviction be liable to a fine of not less than fifty thousand naira (50,000) only” the bill stated.
The bill further explained that any person who wilfully buries or otherwise disposes off, the body of any deceased child though born alive, as if it were stillborn shall on conviction, be liable to a fine of not less than fifty thousand naira (N50,000) only.
In the communique, the Council also resolved that only credible individuals should be appointed into various positions in the Federal and state level to avoid the mistakes of the last administration.
The Council which frowned at the lingering crisis in Kajuru and other parts of Kaduna State appealed to government to use all its possible initiatives and machinery to bring to an end the crisis. ” As the month of Ramadan is fast approaching, the Council is advising all its members to use the Tafsir period as a medium to preach peace, unity, tolerance, and brotherhood among Muslims and Nigerians to avoid making statements capable of creating division, disunity and misunderstanding among the people
“The Council has observed the increasing rate in insecurity not only in Kaduna state but in the nation at large such as kidnapping, cattle rustling with intense bedevilment of communal and sectarian crises in the state”, the Council resolved
