Godfrey Okoye University (GOUNI), Enugu, has given families of 33 corpses abandoned in its hospital mortuary 21 days to evacuate them, failing which the corpses would be given mass burial.
Some of the corpses had been in the mortuary for more than 18 years.
Vice-Chancellor of the university, Prof. Christian Anieke, told a news conference in Enugu on Sunday that the ultimatum, given on November 13 became necessary to enable the university to renovate the mortuary.
GOUNI is owned by the Catholic Diocese of Enugu. It recently converted and upgraded one of its hospitals hosting the mortuary to serve as the varsity’s medical teaching hospital.
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Anieke said the renovation and upgrading would make the mortuary to become a fitting one for a teaching hospital.
“We have got 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 want to renovate and make the hospital a befitting one for a teaching hospital,’’ he said.
While confirming ignorance of what could be responsible for the long stay of the corpses, he opined that some probably had no relations or they were criminals.
“I am appealing to those who have corpses in the mortuary to come and remove them.
“We are talking about human beings here and not animals. Go and check if your relationship is there,’’ he admonished.
Anieke added that in Igbo tradition, families have to give befitting burial to the deceased.
“It is believed that if the dead is not given befitting burial, it will have bad consequences on the family,’’ he said.
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In his remarks, the Chief Medical Director of the teaching hospital, Prof. Cajetan Nwadinigwe, said many of the corpses did not have name tags, while about 14 of them bore the same name.
He said there were no records of dates in 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 is our basis of approaching the court and advertising the warning in newspapers for families to see,’’ Nwadinigwe said.
The Eagle Online
