- Safiu Kehinde
No fewer than 100 mutilated and decaying corpse have been discovered at a mortuary allegedly used for organ harvesting in Imo State.
The state’s Police Command, in collaboration with the Imo’s Ministry of Health, made the discovery following inspection of the morgue located at Ngor-Okpala Local Government Area of the state on Saturday.
Addressing newsmen at the scene of the incident one of the senior police officers recounted how they had received intelligence report over the existence of the unregistered morgue and the bodies in the area.
The officer, whose name could not be immediately confirmed in a video of the address shared on X, disclosed that over 100 mutilated and decomposing bodies were found in the morgue.
He said the owner of the facility, which he confirmed to be used for organ harvesting, is currently on the run as he refused to honour the invitations sent to him by the police.
“We received an intelligence that an unregistered mortuary is being discovered in this vicinity. His Excellency delegated the Commissioner for Health, the Local Government Chairperson of Ngor-Okpala.
“Myself I came to represent the Inspector General of Police. We visited this place and saw scattered and mutilated corpses in this environment.
“With what we have seen, the corpses we have discovered are more than 100. And the owner of the mortuary is on the run. We sent for him but he refused to come.
“And severally, we mounted surveillance whether we will be able to get him. By the information we gathered, they use this place in dumping the corpses of what they called organs harvest.” The officer said.
He however urged members of the public who have any of the late loved ones in the morgue to notify the police as he disclosed plan to hold mass burial for the bodies with the facility also set to be destroyed.
“We are appealing to the members of the public, whoever that has corpse here should come forward because the excellency wants to unveil who and who are running this unauthorised mortuary because it’s been in existence but it’s now that we discovered it.
“We will arrest the suspect and he is gong to face the full wrath of the law. We have already declared him wanted. He is on the run We did not see anybody here.
“We may soon make a mass burial. Because it is constituting health hazard in this village.
“The Excellency is going to destroy the whole facility after obtaining legal order.” He added.
Also speaking, the Imo Commissioner for Health, Dr. Chioma Egwu, disclosed that the mortuary was not registered with the state’s Ministry of Health.
Egwu confirmed the decomposed state of the body while declaring the area a place of public health concern.
“We have checked our record and we’ve not seen this place registered or any up-to-date registration of this facility at the Ministry of Health.
“We come here to inspect and we found hundreds of dead bodies, decomposed and not taken care of.
“There is nothing to show that this place is a mortuary. Even if you look at the corpses, there is nothing to show that they tried to preserve them.
“We are declaring this place a place of public health concern. It is hazardous to the environment and we will look at our report when we get back and advise His Excellency.” The Commissioner said.
Also speaking on the state of the corpse, the Imo State Specialist Hospital’s Head of Pathology expressed his shock over what he labelled unfair preservation of the corpses.
He confirmed that the bodies were mutilated with possible harvest of their organs.
The pathologist further maintained that the environment of the facility does not depict a typical morgue as the building was dilapidated with the bodies terribly preserved.
He called on the state Commissioner for Health to further examine their records for possible existence of other unregistered morgues across the state.
“Incidentally, I was so astonished when I got here because there was no level of preservation of the corpses. They are in total state of unfair preservation. And most of the bodies are mutilated and in a very terrible state of preservation.
“Even the environment does not depict an environment where bodies should be kept because they are in very big state of disrepair.
“The building is dilapidated, the bodies are terribly preserved, and the environment is terribly insecure.
“There exits and entrances which does not depict a good mortuary setting.
“I will advise the Honourable Commissioner to look inward and check the record to ascertain where these so-called mortuaries are in existence.” He said.
On her part, the Ngor-Okpala LGA Chairperson, Chika Igbokwe, recounted futile efforts by the council administration to meet the owner of the morgue
Igbokwe disclosed plan to call attention of indigenes of the community who may have their deceased ones in the morgue to come and pick them up before the mass burial of the remaining corpses.
“From what you can see, the corpses here have stayed more than what it should be. And I believe that if there is somebody running this place, that person should have been here today to receive us.
“Because we’ve made effort, we’ve made attempts to reach out to the person running this mortuary but we always come here to find a ghost place.
“On that regard, I will suggest. In fact, tomorrow, I will be going to the radio, using the social media platforms to reach out to every Ngor-Okpala person.
“If you know that you have your person, relatives in this so-called mortuary, they should quickly come and take their bodies because any moment from now, we are going to, by the God if we get a letter from the Attorney General or something, we will come back here to do a mass burial for these corpses and possibly demolish this building because this kind of building can create insecurity.” She said.