The spiritual director of Zion Prayer Movement Outreach, Evangelist Chukwuebuka Anozie Obi at the weekend, inaugurated a legal team to handle pro bono cases for indigent Nigerians.
The clergy, who set up a 42-man team said he would expand it due to the volume of work they will do.
He explained that they will take up cases for innocent poor Nigerians abandoned in prisons for years, the oppressed in the society and fight against the practice of keeping dead bodies in shrines across the country against the wishes of the bereaved families.
Explaining the rationale behind the action, he said: “I used to go to prison visitations. Some people have stayed five to 10 years without even going to court in Nigeria. It is one of the reasons we established the Zion legal team, to help them out. We are going to move to different prisons to give the people help. Remember that in Nigeria, if you don’t have money, nobody will recognise you and you are nobody.
“There are thousands of people locked up in prisons because they have no money and their families are poor. They stay there for years. Some of them are innocent. They are there because they don’t have anybody that will stand for them. So, we decided to step in.”
He also stated that the team will challenge the practice of keeping dead bodies in shrines and displaying them in videos to traumatise the bereaved family members as a way of extorting money from them.
“We are going to fight against it. I want to know the right that the leaders of those shrines have to keep corpses under their custody and display them every day.
“Under which law do they do this? I have contacted senators and other security agencies and they confirmed that it is against the law,” he declared, adding that he is not against people practising whatever faith they choose, but won’t condone the act of confiscating dead bodies.
Calling for a concerted effort to tackle insecurity in Nigeria, the man of God noted that the government at all levels must redouble their efforts to rein in the menace as no investor will bring in money to an unsecured economy.
Regarding the South East, he appealed to the Federal Government to release the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) unconditionally to restore peace in the region, because “fire cannot quench fire.”
One of the senior lawyers in the team, Mr. Emmanuel Omeje, reacting to the legal implications of keeping corpses in shrines instead of releasing them to families for burial, said the clergy, by embarking on the mission, is determined to tackle the menace to sanitise the society.
“The practice of keeping dead people in their shrines and showcasing them to traumatise their families, is a crime in Nigeria under the Criminal Code punishable by imprisonment upon conviction.
“These things have been going on unchallenged for many years and no one has been able to tackle it due to fear. The government tried during the Okija Shrine crisis, but could not sustain it.
“We thank God that the man of God has decided to ensure that it stops. There is a law that empowers human beings to do business. There is also a law prescribing how to handle dead bodies.
“But there is no law that empowers you to keep dead bodies, desecrate them, video them and show them to the whole world to traumatise people when you are not a licensed mortician. They are profiting from evil and it must stop,” he declared.
He explained that the team will collaborate with police authorities and the government officials in the states where the issue is observed to ensure that perpetrators are apprehended, investigated and prosecuted according to the law.
