The Management of the Kwara State University Teaching Hospital, Ilorin has called on people who deposited corpses at the hospital morgue to remove them within two weeks.
The hospital in a statement by the Head, Corporate Affairs Unit, Yakub Aliagan, made available on Sunday to the press said the mortuary of the hospital is full as a result of unclaimed corpses.
“The Management of Kwara State University Teaching Hospital, Ilorin, wishes to announce to the general public that its Mortuary is filled beyond capacity with no available space due to unclaimed bodies.”
It urged people who have corpses in the hospital to retrieve the bodies of their loved ones within two weeks Sunday, 8 December and Saturday 21 December, 2024.
It said that the corpses would be considered for mass burial after the time limit given by the management for the removal.
“The management, therefore, implores the general public to come and retrieve the bodies of their relatives and loved ones within the next two weeks from the time of this announcement, after which the Management will consider decongestion through mass burial”, the statement said.
Also in a move to discourage excessive storage of deceased bodies in mortuaries, the Enugu State Government in October 2024, announced the payment of N40 by owners of a corpse once it was not buried within 24 hours. The amount, however, will continue to count daily.
The Mortuary Tax circular addressed to all mortuary attendants in the state, read, “Kindly ensure that owners of corpses make the payments before collection of the corpses for burial and then remit same to the ESIRS in any commercial bank under the mortuary tax in Enugu State IGR Account.”
On 18 September, 2024, the Osun State Police Command announced the arrest of seven suspects for selling human parts and water used to bathe corpses in the state.
The command said the arrests followed credible information from a concerned individual that a mortuary attendant at Ipetu-Ijesa identified as Johnson Daniel, was selling remains of corpses deposited at the mortuary where he worked to native doctors.
