A group – Family United By Sports (FUBS) – has paid the N600,000 outstanding hospital bill to ensure the release of the corpse of former Olympic boxer, Jerry Okorodudu, who died on Wednesday night.
The death of sixty-four-year-old Okorodudu, who had been battling a foot ulcer, was confirmed by his wife, Adenike.
The hospital in Ikorodu area of Lagos State had said it would not release the corpse of the Olympic bronze medalist.
Okorodudu was scheduled to undergo an operation in the hospital. The operation was to have been carried out last week Saturday but for paucity of fund.
Okorodudu represented Nigeria at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics in the middleweight category, where he was a national champion. He had earlier won bronze medal at the 1982 Commonwealth Games in Brisbane, Australia.
FUBS, made up of several sports personalities, including Okorodudu himself, had been trying to raise funds for the operation.
The group, headed by sports administrator, Mr. Godwin Enakhena could not however raise the sum demanded for the surgery.
But the fund was up to the N600,000 outstanding hospital bill. The money was quickly released to the hospital in the early hours of Thursday to enable the family, led by Adenine, to take the corpse away for burial.
A member of the group said that members had tried to raise the required funds to assist Okorodudu, but the donation was yet to cover the cost of the operation until he died.
