Kevon Felmine

Or­isha lead­ers yes­ter­day evoked the spir­its of their an­ces­tors as they prayed for the soul of Abi­gail John­son, who was killed by po­lice at Rochard Dou­glas Road, Bar­rack­pore, two weeks ago, along with her two friends-Keron Ec­cles and Alana Dun­can. Amidst the up­roar and rage which fol­lowed John­son's death, Or­isha's Chief Priest­ess, Va­lerie Leeche, called on the an­ces­tral spir­its to bring peace and jus­tice to the Moru­ga com­mu­ni­ty. Leeche said: "All of us have lost a daugh­ter. Let this be a les­son to us that we all need to come to­geth­er. I call up­on our an­ces­tors to bring about jus­tice, I call up­on our an­ces­tors to bring about peace." The fu­ner­al start­ed around 2 pm at John­son's home on Bur­ton Trace, St Mary's.

Mourn­ers danced and clapped to the sounds of bon­go drums. Sev­er­al peo­ple rang bells, sprin­kled laven­der and holy wa­ter on the ground, while oth­ers lit can­dles around the cas­ket. John­son's spir­i­tu­al fa­ther, Bish­op Kaw­mi Jor­dan, told mourn­ers John­son had seen signs of her death through her Or­isha faith. Re­count­ing the spir­i­tu­al sto­ry, Jor­dan said: "Two days be­fore Abi­gail was killed, she had a vi­sion of her dead fa­ther com­ing to her. He told her, I will make you rich, just come with me and she went." Jor­dan said the morn­ing be­fore her death, John­son told the sto­ry to her grand­moth­er, May John­son.

Jor­dan said: "when Or­isha warns you, take heed."

He said even in death John­son had a job to per­form. "No grave could hold her body down. We have sent her to do a job," Jor­dan said as her rel­a­tives rocked her cas­ket and passed young tod­dlers over it. The rel­a­tives placed four cam­phor balls at the four cor­ners of her cas­ket. They al­so wrote a mes­sage on John­son's cof­fin be­fore "send­ing her off". The mourn­ers took her body through the streets of Moru­ga, from Mandin­go Junc­tion to In­di­an Walk, where she was laid to rest at Payn­ter's Ceme­tery. MP for Princes Town Clifton de Couteau said he knew John­son as her grand­moth­er was a sup­port­er when he con­test­ed the elec­tion last year.

He de­scribed her as an am­bi­tious per­son who worked dili­gent­ly at her DVD store. Al­so at­tend­ing the fu­ner­al were Min­is­ter of the Peo­ple Dr Glenn Ra­mad­hars­ingh and for­mer MP, Pe­ter Tay­lor. John­son, 20, and her friends were killed in a po­lice shoot­ing on Ju­ly 22 in Bar­rack­pore. Po­lice al­leged they were fired on and that they found a weapon in the trio's white Nis­san Sen­tra. The in­ci­dent sparked six days of protest in Moru­ga. The protest end­ed on Sun­day when Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er Dwayne Gibbs in­ter­vened and ap­point­ed an in­de­pen­dent in­ves­ti­ga­tor. Ec­cles' fu­ner­al takes place to­day at 2 pm at the In­di­an Walk Open Bible Church, Moru­ga. Dun­can was buried on Sat­ur­day.