Authorities of Godfrey Okoye University in Enugu State issued a 21-day ultimatum to the families of 33 abandoned corpses in the hospital’s mortuary.
At a news conference held in Enugu, the university’s Vice Chancellor, Prof. Christian Anieke, announced that the ultimatum given last year November 13th was deemed necessary to allow the university to carry out renovations on the mortuary.
He disclosed that some of the corpses had been in the mortuary for more than 18 years.
Anieke stated that the renovations and upgrades made the mortuary fit for a teaching hospital.
He said,
“We had a court injunction to carry out mass burial of the 33 abandoned corpses in our teaching hospital morgue.
“Some of the corpses have been in the mortuary for more than 18 years and it is quite challenging as we wanted to renovate and make the hospital a befitting one for a teaching hospital.
“I appealed to those who had corpses in the mortuary to remove them.
The teaching hospital’s Chief Medical Director, Prof. Cajetan Nwadinigwe, revealed that a significant number of corpses found in the facility lacked proper identification.
During his remarks, Nwadinigwe added that 14 of the deceased individuals shared the same name.
He said there were no records of dates on which some of the corpses were deposited at the mortuary, while it was evident that some had been there for more than 10 years.
“This was our basis for approaching the court and advertising the warning in newspapers for families to see,’’ Nwadinigwe said.