Burials Law

1. Citation This Law may be cited as the Burials Law.

2. Interpretation In this Law - "Appropriate authority" means a member of the State executive council with the responsibility for health matter; "Occupier" includes, where a house is let in separate lodgings or apartments, any person residing in such house who is the person under whom such separate lodgings or apartments are immediately held or his agent; "Registrable" means registrable under the provisions of the Births and Deaths Registration Act; "Registrar" means, a registrar appointed under the provisions of the aforesaid Law and includes a deputy Registrar; "Relation" includes a connection by marriage; "State" means Delta State of Nigeria.

3. Registrar to issue certificate for burial. Immediately upon registering any death or receiving information of the birth of any child stillborn, the registrar shall issue his certificate in the Form A in the schedule for the burial of the body: [Form A Schedule] Provided that a registrar shall not, without the written authority of a coroner, issue such certificate in any of the following cases: (a) if it shall appear to the registrar that there is reason to believe that the deceased died either a violent or an unnatural death, or died suddenly from a cause unknown, or whilst confined in a lunatic asylum or in prison; (b) if the registrar shall consider that the circumstances connected with any death require investigation; or (c) if he shall be informed that a report concerning the death in question has been or is about to be made to the coroner: Provided also that any registrar who refuses or fails without reasonable cause to deliver or issue any certificate which he is required to issue under this section or delivers or issues any certificate he is prohibited from delivering or issuing hereunder shall be liable to a fine of two thousand naira.

4. Coroner may authorise burial before registration of death. Where a coroner has made an order for burial under the provision of the Coroners Law such burial may take place notwithstanding the fact that the death of the deceased person has not been registered.

5. Registrar’s certificate and coroner’s order to be delivered to a person burying. (1) Every certificate of the registrar under section 3 and every order of the coroner made under the provisions of the Coroners Law shall be delivered by the person who performs any burial service over the body of the deceased. (2) Any person contravening the provisions of subsection (1) of the section shall be liable to a fine of five thousand naira.

6. Prohibition against burial without proper sanction. (1) Unless a Magistrate or medical officer of health shall in writing order, otherwise, no body of a deceased person whose death is registrable or a still-born child whose birth if he had been born alive would have been registrable shall be buried or otherwise disposed of until a certificate shall have been granted by the registrar or an order shall have been made by the coroner, and person contravening the provisions of this subsection shall be liable to a fine of five hundred naira. (2) A Magistrate or medical officer of health may, subject to the like restrictions as are imposed on the registrar by the proviso to section 3, make such order in any case in which he may consider it to be necessary in the interest of the public health, but shall in every case notify the registrar in the Form B in the Schedule of such order having been made. [Form B Schedule.]

7. Time within which dead bodies are to be buried. (1) Every body of a deceased person or of a still-born child shall be buried within seven days of the issue of the registrar’s certificate or the making of the order of the coroner, magistrate or medical officer of health. (2) Any person upon whom the duty of causing the body of a deceased person to be buried is imposed by section 12 who shall fail to comply with the provisions of subsection (1) of this section shall be liable to a fine of four hundred.

8. Burial of deceased child as still-born. (1) Any person who shall willfully bury or otherwise dispose of or procure to be buried or otherwise disposed of the body of any deceased child as if it were still-born shall be liable to a fine of two hundred naira. (2) A registrar shall not issue his certificate for the burial, of any still-born child before there is delivered to him either; (a) a written certificate in one of the Form C in the schedule that such child was not born alive, signed by a qualified medical practitioner who was in attendance at the birth, or who has examined the body of such child; or [Form C Schedule.] (b) a declaration in the Form D in the Schedule signed some person who would, if the child had been born alive, have been required to register the birth, to the effect that no medical certificate can be obtained, and that the child was not born alive. [Form D Schedule]

9. Power to appoint burial grounds. The Executive Council may by order - (a) declare any burial ground to be public burial ground to persons of any class, nationality or religious denomination mentioned in the order; (b) appropriate any public buria1 ground to persons of any class, nationality or religious denomination mentioned in the order; or (c) order that any burial ground, whether a public burial ground or not, named in such order shall from a date specified be discontinued either wholly or subject to any exceptions or qualification made in such order.

10. Control and management of public burial grounds. Every public burial ground shall be under the control or management of such person or body of persons as the appropriate authority may direct.

11. Where public burial ground provided no burial elsewhere. Where one or more burial grounds have been declared for any area either by the Executive Council under this law or by a Local Government or under any Law enabling it in that behalf no corpse shall be buried in any place within such area other than a place within such public burial grounds except in accordance with the provisions of any bye laws relating to burial in places other than public burial grounds, in force in such area, and any person contravening the provision of this section shall be liable to a fine of four hundred naira. [WR 26 of 1959.]

12. On whom duty of burial falls. (1) The duty of causing the body of a deceased person to be buried is imposed on the following persons – (a) the executors of the deceased; (b) in the absence or default of an executor each and everyone of the relatives of the deceased; and (c) in the absence or default of the relatives, the occupier of the promises on which the body lies: Provided that any person who shall cause a body to be buried shall be entitled to be paid all reasonable expenses incurred out of the property of the deceased in priority to all other charges. (2) The duty of causing the body of a still-born child to be buried is imposed on the parent and in default of the parent the occupier of the premises on which the body lies.

13. No burial at depth less than 1.25 metres. Except with the consent of a medical officer no corpse shall be buried at a less distance of four feet from the surface of the ground and any person contravening the provisions of this section shall be liable to a fine of two hundred naira or to imprisonment for two months.

14. Power of court to close dwelling house near which, corpse is buried. (1) A court may on the application of the health officer order that any dwelling house in which, or within a hundred yards of which, a corpse has been buried be closed until the same is fit for habitation, and may if necessary authorise any police officer to remove from such house the occupant thereof. (2) Any person inhabiting a dwelling-house so closed shall be liable to a fine of ten naira and a further fine of five naira for each day that such habitation continues. (3) No order shall be made under this section if the corpse has been buried in a public burial ground.

15. Search warrant for a corpse buried near a dwelling house. (1) Upon the information of a health officer or any person authorised by him that a corpse has been buried in any dwelling-house or in any place, not being a public burial ground, within one hundred yards from any dwelling house, a court may issue a warrant, authorising any member of the police or any officer of the court to search, and, if necessary, to dig up any ground in any such dwelling house, for the purpose of ascertaining if any corpse has been buried. (2) Any corpse found in the execution of a warrant issued under this section shall be removed and buried by such person or persons as the court may direct, and the costs of such removal and burial shall be paid by the persons by whom such corpse has been buried or cause to be buried in a place from which it has been removed or otherwise as the court may direct.

16. Exhumation. (1) The appropriate authority may by writing under his hand order the exhumation of anybody buried in any place within the State and may direct that any such exhumation shall be carried out in the presence of, and in a manner approved by, a medical officer and give such other directions with regard to any such exhumation as he may think fit. (2) Save as provided in subsection (1), no corpse shall be taken up or exhumed, transferred or removed from a public burial ground: Provided that nothing in the Law shall be deemed to affect the power of a coroner to order exhumation under the provision of the Coroners Law. (3) Any person contravening the provisions of subsection (2) shall on conviction be liable to a fine of five thousand naira or imprisonment for two years or to both.

17. Power to make regulations. The Executive Council may make regulations - (a) for the Government and guidance of the registrar; (b) for regulating burials in public burial grounds; (c) for the protection of memorials of the dead in public burial grounds; (d) for regulating the size, the position of and prices to be paid for spaces for grave and burials; (e) for prescribing the duties of keepers of burial grounds, and prescribing that no customary fees or tribute shall be required from any person before burial ground is permitted; (f) general for the better carrying into effect the provision of this Law. BURIALS LAW FORM A BURIALS LAW Certificate for Burial Section 3 This is to certify that the death of ..... late of .... deceased, has been duly registered at page .... of volume .... of the Registered of Deaths at ..... (or that I am credibly informed that a child of .... of .... And ..... his wife, born on the .... day of ..... 20..... was still-born), and I hereby give permission for the interment of the body. Given under my hand at this day ..... of ..... 20..... (Signature)...... (Registrar of Birth and Death) FORM B [Section 6] BURIALS LAW Notice to Registrar by the magistrate, or medical officer of health ordering Burial of body. I, the undersigned, hereby give notice that on the .... day of .... 20 ..... I ordered the body of ..... of....to be buried. The persons responsible for the registration of the death are (set out names and addresses). ................ (Signature and office) To the registrar of births and deaths at ... FORM C BURIALS LAW (1) Certificate that Child was Stillborn, by Medical Practitioner who was in, Attendance during the Birth [Section 8] I, the undersigned medical practitioner, hereby certify that I was present at ... on the.....day of .... 20.....when......of (or, if the child was born in wedlock, say ...... the wife (or widow) ..... of..... of...... gave birth to a male (or female) child, and that the said child was not born alive. DATED at .... the..... day of.......20..... (Signature)........ (Additions) (Address) (2) Certificate that child was still-born by medical practitioner who was in attendance during the birth I, the undersigned medical practitioner, hereby certify that I examined the body of a male or female child to wish as I am inform and believe ... of.... (or, if the child was born in wedlock, say .... the wife (or widow) of ..... of......), gave birth to a male (or female) child, and that the said child was not born alive. DATED at....the... Day of......20..... (Signature) ....... (Additions) (Address) FORM D BURIALS LAW Declaration by Informant that Child was Stillborn [Section 8.] I, the undersigned, hereby declare that a male (or female) child was born to .... of ... (or: if the child was born in wedlock; say......the wife (or widow) of.... of....), at .... on the .... Day of......20....... that the said child was not born alive, and that no medical practitioner was present at the birth (or, and that no medical certificate of the said child not having been born alive can be obtained). Dated at.... the....day of.....20..... (Signature, description and address of declarant).