SHOCKING DISBELIEF AS CORPSE OF 80 YEAR OLD WOMAN GOES MISSING IN EBONYI MORTUARY
REPORTER: AMECHI ODO
Police in Ebonyi State have been called upon to unravel the circumstances surrounding the disappearance of the corpse of an 80 year old woman, Late Mrs. Grace Orjiokoro, from a mortuary in Afikpo South Local Government Area where it was deposited for burial.
The brother of the deceased, Pastor Fred Okoro, told Radio Nigeria that he got the shock of his life when the family members went to collect the remains of their sister on the burial day, only to discover that a different corpse was kept in the morgue for them.
Late Mrs. Grace Orjiokoro died on 2nd of July, 2021 and was deposited in the mortuary located at the premises of General Hospital Owutu Edda in Afikpo South Local Government Area on the same day.
With the burial date fixed for December 28, 2021, sympathizers and relations converged on various canopies at the deceased compound singing and chanting only for news to filter in that the corpse was missing in the mortuary.
The brother of the deceased, Pastor Fred Okoro said the plot started a month after the deposit was made as several efforts made by family members to see the condition of the corpse were allegedly frustrated by the morticians as they always claimed that the morgue was fumigated.
Pastor Okoro said it dawned on them when the family members went to the mortuary to get the corpse for lying in state and burial only to discover that a strange corpse was presented to them.
“The corpse presented to us was not ours because my sister is tall about 6ft tall and we discovered that the person was short. Not only that, my sister plaited hair that fell down on her shoulder at the time of death but this one has a low cut hair,” he stated in anger.
A daughter of the deceased, who is a Naval Officer, Welsie Okoro, described the development as unbelievable, noting that when they dragged the morticians to Owutu Police Station, they claimed that they mistakenly handed her mother’s corpse to another family for burial.
“And even the mortuary attendant, Mr. Felix, said one of his colleagues said he knows the person he gave mother’s corpse to,” she said.
However, Pastor Okoro said he suspected foul play as those alleged to have mistaken his sister’s corpse for theirs had refuted the allegation.
“It was discovered that those people deposited body in May where as my sister was deposited in (on) July 2nd,” Pastor Okoro argued.
When contacted, the Manager of the Mortuary, Mr. Vincent Ude, said he was doing everything possible to recover the corpse.
“Investigations are still on now, I am sure we are going to recover the corpse,” he pleaded.
Efforts to get the reaction of the Police Public Relations Officer in Ebonyi State, Mrs. Loveth Odah, did not achieve the desired result.
It was gathered that it took the intervention of Naval Officers accompanying their bereaved colleague in preventing the situation from degenerating into a violent scene as sympathizers went home abandoning all that was prepared.