Ondo State Government Holds Mass Burial For 496 Corpses

Ondo State government has disclosed that it has carried out a mass burial of 496 unclaimed corpses at the Akure and Ondo morgues of the University of Medical Science Teaching Hospital (UNIMEDTH).

This was disclosed by the Special Adviser to the State Governor on Health, Dayo Faduyile on Tuesday in Akure .

Mr Faduyile said the move was a follow-up on an assessment tour of the morgues towards decongesting them.

He said that government officials recently embarked on an assessment tour of the morgues in the two health facilities.

“There was also an advertisement on the plan for the mass burial on the print and electronic media and giving a 21-day period to reclaim the unclaimed bodies, in compliance with the extent laws of the land.

“There was auditing of the unclaimed bodies in the morgues of Akure and Ondo UNIMEDTH complexes for record purposes and the certification of the unclaimed bodies to ascertain their individual causes of death.

“In all, 87 bodies were identified and known with their name tags while 409 were unknown and a total of 496 bodies underwent mass burial.

“The 21-day ultimatum as publicised on print and electronic media commenced on August 1 and lapsed on August 21, with commencement of preparations for the mass burial,” he said.

Mr Faduyile said that the mass burial was carried out on September 2, in the presence of security operatives, and that “the bodies were buried in a deep grave of 10 by 10 feet wide, and 18 feet depth at the allocated land by the state government.”