Mark Orode, Bauchi
A mammoth crowd of sympathisers yesterday witnessed the burial of Sunday Joshua, the security guard allegedly beaten to death at New Trafford Hotels and Suites at Gwalameji in Bauchi, May 26, over a missing phone.
The burial was attended by a well-known cleric, Archbishop Charles
Yohanna; member, Bauchi State House of Assembly representing Bogoro
constituency, Mr Musa Nakwada, family, friends, and sympathisers.
Joshua’s remains were brought from the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University Teaching Hospital, Bauchi, to the Christian Cemetery at Yelwa in a procession by the Boys’ Brigade about 10:21 am. The brigade rendered soul- touching songs with trumpets, bands at the
background as they carried Joshua’s body for final interment.
The deceased’s mother, Urfa Joshua, could not be consoled as she wept while the coffin was lowered to mother earth.
In his homily at the funeral, Rev. Evans Bingila, of the Lutheran Church of Christ in Nigeria (LCCN II), Yelwa, harped on forgiveness, urging family and friends of the deceased particularly the youths not to take the laws into their hands by breaking the law in trying to ‘avenge’ Sunday’s murder.
He took his message from Exodus 21verse 24 to 25, saying “it is written that if a man slaps you, you can slap the person back; if he removes your tooth, you can also revenge. If we are to follow this teaching in the Old Testament, there would be no peace in the world. It means we will keep killing ourselves. In fact, the suspected killers of Joshua would not have been alive if we are to take laws into our hands.”