Ondo State government has disclosed that 402 abandoned corpses will be given a mass burial in the state.
The government said about 402 abandoned corpses are currently overcrowding the morgues at the University of Medical Sciences Teaching Hospital (UNIMEDTH) complexes in Akure and Ondo.
The government stated that the abandoned bodies had been left unclaimed in the facilities for the last four to five years, raising public health concerns.
In a directive conveyed through the Special Adviser on Health, Prof. Simidele Odimayo, the government ordered the immediate burial of the corpses to prevent potential hazards to the state’s people.
In the statement titled “List of Unknown and Abandoned Bodies in UNIMEDTH Ondo and Akure Complexes,” the government announced a 21-day ultimatum to the families of the abandoned bodies to reclaim them.
According to the government, the families have been given a 21-day ultimatum to identify and reclaim the remains of their relatives before the mass burial exercise.
The statement further said, “Out of the 402 corpses, 322 remain unidentified, while 80 have been identified but left unclaimed. Records show that 146 are female (117 unknown, 29 known), while 256 are male (205 unknown, 51 known).”
The government, however, urged members of the public to present valid evidence when claiming the bodies of their loved ones before the expiration of the ultimatum.
