By Segun Amure.
Residents of the Osere community in Kwara State have narrated bitter experiences of living near a cemetery.
The Africa Housing News in its report gathered that many of the residents have varied opinions of being disturbed by ghosts from the cemetery.
Below are the reactions from the residents-
The Africa Housing News: How does it feel living around burial grounds in an environment that is struggling daily to unravel tales of ghosts communicating with the living?
Reacting, Mr. Abdulrahman Kehinde, a trader said, I have spent eight years on the cemetery road, before I decided to live in the area.
“I have heard tales of ghosts knocking on doors of residents in the night around the area.
“All of this is about belief. If truly ghosts knock on doors to ask for water, my mother was buried in that cemetery and she has never knocked on my door which should be the one she should knock first.”
He added that his mother who died in Lagos years back was buried in the cemetery around 2am and he was not disturb by ghosts.
His word reads, “In fact when my mother died in Lagos, she was brought back to Ilorin around 2 o’clock in the morning; that is supposed to be the time that ghosts start their activities. I think people should always see the cemetery as a place of learning; to learn the reality of life which is vanity and not a place to fear.”
Aligning with Mr. Abdulrahman, a young man named Aliu Dhikrullahi, whose shop shares the same fence with the cemetery, affirmed that he has never encountered a ghost since working around the area.
He said, “Since the time I got here, I have never experienced such. Most times, we are still here till nightfall, around 8-9 pm. We would have stopped working, but we will be hanging out with friends and we have never seen such an occurrence.
“Even neighbours that I met here who have been here for more than a decade, none of them have ever told me that they have seen or heard of such incidents,” he added.
Going further, According to Alhaja Afsat Balogun, a trader and resident who operates a shop directly opposite the cemetery, “Ever since I moved to this area, years ago, I have never experienced such nor have my neighbours both at home and at my shop. But we have heard a lot of tales before about those living close to the cemetery.”
Asked the reactions of people when she tells them where she stays, Balogun said: “Maybe in the past many years ago people might react in strange ways but now if you look around, you will see that a lot of people have built houses here and a lot of communities have surrounded the cemetery.”
On his part, the secretary of the Muslim Cemetery who also doubles as the supervisor of the night watchmen, Taofiq Abdulrahman, said: “From my own experience, having been on night watch for more than 18 years and as per people’s beliefs, ghosts are nocturnal beings that move around in the night and I have never met with one before.
“We usually go deep into the burial ground late at night and we will wait for several minutes. Thousands of people have been buried here but not even a single one of them has risen from their graves before.
There are some people who attribute chilly winds to the presence of some supernatural beings most especially ghosts, but such wind in the cemetery is due to the presence of many trees in the premises of the burial ground and not any activities of paranormals.
Mr. Abdulrahman added that someone once asked him if he had seen a ghost because he stayed around the cemetery.
He responded by telling the person to wait till 1am at the darkest part of the night so as to go into the burial ground and sleep in between the graves. So these are just people’s belief about the residents here”, he added
