The Ondo state government has ordered the mass burial of 402 corpses abandoned at the morgue of the University of Medical Sciences Teaching Hospital (UNIMEDTH).
The bodies, which had been left unclaimed for over four years, were described as a growing concern for the administration of Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa.
Prof. Simidele Odimayo, Special Adviser on Health Matters to the governor, disclosed in a statement issued in Akure that the corpses were deposited at the state-owned facility between 2020 and 2024.
He said Governor Aiyedatiwa had directed their immediate burial to decongest the hospital morgue.
“The office of the Special Adviser to the Governor on Health has completed the arrangement to effect the mass burial.
“The general public is therefore given up to 21 days from the day of this notice to go with evidence and claim the corpses of their relatives/ loved ones before the proposed mass burial.”
According to him, the development was to prevent any unwarranted hazardous tendencies the corpses potends for the people of the state.
“There are a total of 146 abandoned female corpses while that of male were 256.Out of the 146 female corpses, there are 117 unknown corpses, while only 29 corpses of the total figure could be identified.
“For the male, out of the 256 corpses, 205 are unknown while 51 could be identified. The number of unknown corpses, both for male and female, stands at 322 while the total for known corpses stands at 80.
“From the above analyses, the total abandoned and unknown corpses expected to be given mass burial by the Ondo State government remains 402,” he said in the statement.
