A windstorm, which uprooted an ancient tree at Abari Cemetery, in the Lagos Island East Local Council Development Area of Lagos State, has disrupted the peace and quiet in the public burial ground.
PUNCH Metro gathered that no fewer than 50 graves were damaged by the tree, which broke into some of the vaults. The tree was said to be over a century old.
Our correspondent learnt that workers at the cemetery had closed for the day when the windstorm fell the tree around 9pm.
Shortly after the tree fell, there was a downpour in the area.
When our correspondent visited the cemetery on Wednesday, she observed that the tree had blocked the passage leading to the graves.
While some graves were destroyed, others were partially damaged.
Some families whose members were buried in the cemetery were said to have trooped to the site to check if their graves were still intact.
A worker at the cemetery, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said it was the second time a tree would fall on graves in the cemetery.
He said, “This tree has been here for long; we can’t even say the exact number of years because the elderly guards that we met here said it was there when they were young, so that showed that it had been here for more than 100 years.
“A branch of a tree had fallen before and destroyed some graves, so we got someone to cut the tree into pieces. But last week Wednesday, we had closed and were at home when one of the labourers that used to come to the cemetery to work called me that the big tree in the cemetery had fallen.