Rev Fr Adolphus Ikuluke: Catholic Church gives details on what killed Benue priest, secret burial controversy

The Catholic Diocese of Makurdi, benue State, has finally admitted that Rev Father Adolphus Ikuluke died of coronavirus.

The Diocese was reacting to the controversy trailing the death and alleged secret burial of the Catholic priest.

IDOMA VOICE recalls that Fr. Ikuluke died last week and was buried without the celebration of mass, a development that triggered divergent reactions from Benue Catholic faithful.

Clearing air the on the development, the Diocese Director of Social Communications, explained what happened in the statement below.

To all our brothers and sisters, both lay and religious, family members and friends we could not contact before the burial:

Our brother, Father Adolphus Ikuluke died on January 18, 2021 at the University Teaching Hospital Makurdi and had to be buried same day, following the instructions by the State Action Committee on COVID-19. It was a difficult decision for the Bishop but he had to balance the Church’s faith in the resurrection and act in the interest of the common good.

We had an hour in which to perform the burial rites. The Holy Mass was scheduled for 12 Noon and a good number of the priests with the bishop were gathered at the Cathedral Church by 11 a.m., hoping to have prayers for the dead and Holy Mass by 12 noon.

Regrettably some sympathizers who forced their way into the Cathedral Church against every attempt to limit the crowd, smashed the windscreen of the ambulance and manhandled the diocesan medical administrator, created a rather riotous and charged atmosphere unsafe for the celebration of the Holy Eucharist, until the police arrived and picketed!

After three hours of trying to calm nerves, the funeral rites proceeded in a calm and solemn manner; the women sang all through the ceremony; and our brother was solemnly laid to rest. We all left with no incident, even forgetting the groundswell of angst that had snowballed into strained nerves.

Indeed, all the testimonies we heard as people filed out of the Cathedral , were “This is a fulfillment of Father’s wish; he had all along said that he wanted to be buried the same day he would die”, and that “There is nothing in this world, we will all go empty handed leaving everything and everyone behind”.

The bishop decided that funeral mass will be celebrated at a later date; meanwhile masses will be celebrated at deanery level wherever the synod candle is lit.

You were a great priest, the people’s soldier-Father, Man J. (Adolly J). We feel so pained to have you go without the fun you brought to others, but these are times of change and you are the second victim after our younger brother Father Philip Utile who was buried in similar circumstances on April 8, 2020.

May the angels grant you a glorious entrance into the Lord’s presence and continue to intercede for our troubled world. Amen.