Parents of a 19-year-old Ebere Confidence Nwanma, who was allegedly killed by her boyfriend, Saliu Ladapo, yesterday said the suspect must marry the deceased at an elaborate wedding ceremony.This, the parents said, was part of their tradition. The wedding ceremony, according to them, will take place in their hometown in Oru East Local Government Area of Imo State. The family said it was to prevent the death of young children Ladapo’s family from dying.
The 24-year-old Ladapo allegedly killed Ebere at Oshinle area of Akure, Ondo State. He blamed the devil for the death of the school certificate leaver, saying he did not know what came over him when he stabbed Ebere to death.However, Ebere’s parents, Mr. and Mrs. Nwanma, insisted that the suspected killer must marry her corpse in their home town before she could be buried.
“In our place, it is mandatory as our tradition that the man must marry the corpse of our daughter. “He must perform the normal traditional rite by taking the corpse to our village in Oru East in Imo State where the marriage would take place. “It is mandatory that he pays everything multiply by two because he brought our daughter dead for marriage. He would perform all the traditional rites before our family would let him go.
“This is because without this traditional rite, every young person from the family of the boy would never get to the age of our daughter. They will die a sudden death just like our daughter. “This is not our making; it is the tradition of our ancestors even before we were born. Our people all over the world are waiting for the court judgement. Any way it goes, the boy must perform that marital rite to our daughter’s corpse before anything,” the parents said.
