Strange: Over 3, 500 Corpses Litter Anambra Morgues , Plus 1000 Ebola Scare In Lagos Morgues

   
Odogwuemekaodogwu.blogspot.com reports that not less than over 3,000 unclaimed corpses are littering various morgues in Anambra state. There are other 1,000 corpses reportedly abandoned at Lagos morgues due to Ebola induced ban on bodies leaving mortuaries to other states.

Both the public and private hospitals are claiming to have spent nothing less than N150, 000 maintaining each of the corpses including embalming some of them whereas some others secretly bury the unclaimed corpses after months of trying to get their relatives come up. 
The corpses were mostly unclaimed corpses of road crashes abandoned in different mortuaries since 2005, others were victims of armed robbery attacks and communal crises and majority who were sick and died from ailment during doctors strike as well as people resident in Anambra but from other states who lost their loved ones but sequel to ban in interstate movement of corpses sequel to ban they could not bury them.
Anambra state University Teaching hospital formerly Amaku General Hospital mortuary, Awka, Onitsha General Hospital , Nnamdi Azikiwe University Teaching Hospital, Nnewi and Regina-Callie Hospital in Awka, among other public and private morgues scattered in the state.


Just this 2014 alone, over 380 unclaimed dead bodies have been abandoned in mortuaries in Anambra state since the year 2006 of which a break down of these corpses showed that most of them are victims of religious crisis in the Northern parts of Nigeria, victims of accident and those killed by armed robbers.
To this end,  mortuary owners in the state have raised alarm over possible out break of epidemic in towns, like Awka, Onitsha and Ihiala respectively.
One of the owners, Chief Frank Anthony Igboka lamented that government has been unfair to the corpses.
“Nobody will tell you that he is happy. I am particularly not happy about this incident. Those bodies need to be buried and the epidemic that it will course will be dangerous.
“When we talk about the help of people in the state we should be considering the environment that we find ourselves. This is because people are not meant to be kept in a mortuary for so long, especially when they cannot be identified.
“These things normally happen when there is crisis in the state, religious crisis and accidents as well as victims of gunmen. In the past local government elections have not been conducted and as a result of that dead bodies that are unidentified cannot be disposed with and not taking them to the mortuary.
“A good example of the ones at the general hospital mortuary Onitsha where we have victims of religious crisis from the North and they have been here since 2006 and nothing has been done about it. There relations could not come to claim them and they all remain unburied.
 “The spirit of those dead bodies are crying out for attention and the governor cannot claim to have done so well while those corpses are abandoned there forever. We know that it will cost money but even a dead man deserves the respect of a good burial.
He also contended that the mortuaries have become congested and fresh bodies are now being kept on the floor which he described as an eye sore.


A staff of a mission hospital Our Lourdes hospital Ihiala who did not want to be mentioned said hundreds of unclaimed corpses are in their morgue and same was a medical student at NAUTH Nnewi who said hundreds of corpses from accident and ailment are still deposited in their morgues causing discomfort sequel to rainy season.
At Anambra Teaching Hospital , a nurse said it was a common sight but declined further comment.
 
odogwuemekaodogwu.blogspot.com recalls that in 2009 more than 30 corpses abandoned at Regina Caeli Hospital and Maternity were given a mass burial by the authorities of the hospital.

Manager of the Regina Caeli Hospital and Maternity then, Reverend Father Patrick Onuegbu, who raised the alarm said that members of the Nigerian Police had severally dumped the bodies "without particulars of the victims’’.

The 30 corpses include seven children, five men and 18 women. They had all been embalmed by the hospital's morticians on compassionate grounds and put on display. However, no one has come up to identify or claim any of them for several weeks.

This anomaly, according to Fr. Onuegbu, led him to petition the Anambra Police Command for permission to appeal to all those whose relations have been missing to come forward and view them, as the corpses are still all identifiable.

The public appeal lasted until December that year after which no claimants came up, and the hospital sought for permission to give them mass-burial.

Onuegbu had said ,’’ We commend the public spiritedness of this private, church-led hospital which has reportedly spent about N200,000 in maintaining each of the corpses including embalming them. This act contrasts sharply with government treatment of dead Nigerians who randomly would be put in paupers' graves with no efforts made to identify them.


Road safety officials, the Police and good-Samaritans nationwide are faced daily with the issue of the unidentified dead while many grieving families agonize over missing relatives. Many of those declared missing may be among the hundreds of abandoned corpses all over Nigeria. Many are given mass burials like the Oke Afa, Isolo, Lagos, tragedy when panicked citizens had fled the Ikeja bomb blasts in 2002.
That was the same mass burial given to 50 lifeless bodies discovered in Eze River in 2013.

Even at that residents of Urum Street in Awada, Onitsha, Anambra State have been thrown into mourning following the recovery of the bodies of two businessmen swept away by flood during a downpour on two weeks ago Monday evening.
The deceased, identified as Solomon from Achina,  Aguata Local Government Area of the state and another whose identity could not be ascertained as at press time, were among five other persons who reportedly died in various locations within Onitsha after the rainfall witnessed at the close of business on that Monday.
Solomon, a fashion dealer and importer, met his tragic end when he reportedly asked a friend to give him a free ride in his car, a Toyota Camry, since the rain did not subside while it was getting dark. The friend, already with his wife and three other occupants, hesitantly agreed to carry him until they fell into the deep gutter along Onitsha-Asaba Expressway while trying to negotiate the Ogboefere Junction in Okpoko axis.
While trying to escape from the impending doom, Solomon and another occupant of the vehicle were said to have opened the vehicle door but were overpowered by the heavy flood, which later swept them away.
Eyewitness account said the driver and two other occupants of the vehicle escaped by the whiskers as they were rescued by people within the area.
After several frantic searches by local divers hired to search the gutters and swim through the Nwangene stream and River Niger, two dead bodies were later discovered along the bank of the River Niger and a far distance to Odekpe yesterday evening.
A resident of the area, Uchenna, said the corpses were hurriedly taken home for burial as the recovered bodies were already in terrible shape. The residents called on government to compel various construction companies handling road projects in the state to  cover up water channels with slabs  to minimize several casualties occurring frequently in the area.





Additional report from Sun and Daily Independent