Confusion, as 2 corpses disappear from morgue in Benin on burial day

Policemen on Thursday averted a breakdown of law and order at the Central Hospital, Benin City, following the mysterious disappearance of two corpses from the hospital morgue.

Owners of the corpses reportedly went to the hospital to collect them on Thursday for burial, but found out that they were al­legedly missing from the hospital mortu­ary.

Consequently, there was confusion at the hospital yesterday, as no one could of­fer reasonable explanation to the deceased families.

Narrating the ordeal of his family mem­bers, Michael Idemudia, the eldest son of one of the deceased, said his father died on the way to the hospital, and his corpse was deposited in the hospital mortuary.

He explained that his 54-year old dead father, a retired police officer, was deposited in the mortuary on November 18, 2015. According to him, he went to collect his clothes on the 21st of same month, but could not understand why the corpse would be missing on the burial day, when arrangements have been made.

Idemudia alleged the hospital manage­ment was doing nothing about it, rather they locked everywhere.

“My name is Idemudia Michael. I live at 23, Omomo Street, off St. Saviour road. He is my father, and we are from Ovia North East Local Government Area.

“We brought the corpse on the 18th of November, 2015 to this hospital.

We were rushing him to the hospital when he gave up and we brought him here. When he died, we were looking for money to burial him. On the 21st, they called me to come and take back his cloths.

“So, about two days ago, we came to clear the bills and we had no chance to check it again because we were in a hurry. That is where we made the mistake. When we came on Thursday to carry the corpse, it was nowhere to be found and the burial was Thursday and Friday.

“The hospital management said we should take it easy that they are going to investigate the matter”, Idemu­dia said.

Similarly, the family of de­ceased Lawrence Agbonlahor, whose body is also allegedly missing from the hospital mor­tuary, narrated the suffering they have been made to go through as a result of the inci­dent.

The deceased younger broth­er, Mr. Friday Agbonlahor said he saw the corpse three days ago and could not understand how it suddenly disappeared.

“In this country, you suffer for everything, including the dead. I came to see it twice in less than three weeks to ensure that they take care of it. Only for us to come today (Friday) to remove the corpse and it is nowhere to be found.

“On Monday we saw the corpse and even on Thursday when we made preparation for the burial, they said we should not see it since the burial is on (tomorrow) Friday.

“This Friday morning some­body came to tell us that there was problem at the mortuary be­cause of missing corpse, and the management had locked up ev­erywhere. I never envisaged that this bizarre development would concern me. They stared telling me stories when I got there”, Agbolanhor said.

The hospital management could not be reached as they were said to be in an emergency meeting likely to resolve the mystery surrounding the miss­ing corpses.

Following the incident, fam­ily members who deposited corpses of their dead ones at the hospital were alleged to be trans­ferring them to other mortuary.