150-year-old Atan Cemetery has enough space for new corpses, say Director

LAGOS – After existing for close to 150 years, the Atan Cemetery in Yaba, Lagos, still has abundant[pro_ad_display_adzone id=”10″] space to accommodate new corpses, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports.
At 150 years, the cemetery established by the British colonial masters ranks among the oldest of its type in Nigeria.
Speaking in an interview with NAN in Lagos, the Director, Mr Jude Aisuebeogun, said on Thursday that the graveyard, established in 1868 had enough space to bury new corpses.
He said the cemetery, located at the heartland of Nigeria economic capital, coveres 25 hectares of land with more than half the spaces yet to be used.
The director dismissed allegations that the graveyard had been filled up and that new corpses were being buried in old graves.
According to him, there are files for all corpses buried at the cemetery and each grave is numbered for proper administration.
“The Atan Cemetery was established in 1868 and it covers a 25-hectare of land and half of it has not been used.
“There will still be spaces to accommodate dead bodies for a long time.
“When someone pays for a vault, the grave is dug in front of him and no skeleton has been removed or reburied in the process,’’ he said.
He told NAN that one vault costs about N150,000.
Aisuebeogun pointed out that because the cemetery still had vacant lots to lease to Ebony, a private cemetery operator.
He also said that the management of the cemetery usually ensured proper sanitation in the graveyard to prevent offensive odour from coming out of the graves.
“There is no offensive odour coming out of the cemetery that could pollute the environment as we take preventive measure by ensuring the graves are well covered,’’ he said.
On security of the graveyard, the director said that there was 24 hours patrol and security surveillance to prevent the incidence of ritual hunting for human parts.
He said that the management of the cemetery had a long term plan of acquiring new sites at Epe and Ikorodu areas whenever the Atan graveyard was exhausted. (NAN)