LAGOS, Nigeria(VOICE OF NAIJA)- A 2-week removal ultimatum has been given to the owners and depositors of all current unclaimed bodies occupying the morgue of the Kwara State University Teaching Hospital in Ilorin.
The hospital put out a press release on Sunday, disclosing through its Head of Corporate Affairs, Yakub Aliagan, that the morgue was full of unclaimed and abandoned corpses.
However, the hospital’s management has given a grace period of two weeks starting from Sunday, December 8 to Saturday December 21, 2024, for the bodies to be collected by their loved ones.
As a caveat, the management also announced that at the end of the stipulated two weeks, the corpses will be considered for mass burial.
The press release stated in part, “The Management of Kwara State University Teaching Hospital, Ilorin, wishes to announce to the general public that its Mortuary is filled beyond capacity with no available space due to unclaimed bodies,”
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“The management, therefore, implores the general public to come and retrieve the bodies of their relatives and loved ones within the next two weeks from the time of this announcement, after which the Management will consider decongestion through mass burial.”
Meanwhile, in October 2024, the Enugu State Government had made a move to protect its morgues against congestion. It declared a fine of N40, to be paid by owners of a corpse for every 24 hours the corpse stayed unburied.
Distributed across the state to all morgues, the Mortuary Tax notice, addressed to all mortuary attendants read, “Kindly ensure that owners of corpses make the payments before collection of the corpses for burial and then remit same to the ESIRS in any commercial bank under the mortuary tax in Enugu State IGR Account.”
Furthermore, in the west, the Osun State Police Command, on Wednesday September 18, 2024, made public the arrest and detention of seven (7) suspects; 1 mortuary attendant for selling corpse-bath water and human parts to the 6 different native doctors.
According to the command, a vigilant and concerned citizen gave credible information that led to the arrests.
The command disclosed that the mortuary attendant known as Johnson Daniel, who worked in a morgue at Ipetu-Ijesa, a town in Oriade Local Government Area, Osun State, conspired with another mortuary attendant known as Adetunji Okunade, to sell the parts and remains of deposited corpses to native doctors who in turn used them for ritual purposes.
