The Ondo State Government announced on Tuesday that some unclaimed corpses had been disposed of at the mortuaries of the University of Medical Science Teaching Hospitals in Ondo and Akure.
According to the government, 496 corpses at mortuaries were affected and were given mass burials.
Dr Francis Faduyile, Special Adviser to Governor Rotimi Akeredolu on Health, disclosed the development in a statement issued by Bisi Lawani, Press Officer of the state Ministry of Health.
Faduyile explained that the government took the action after he and other government officials recently went on an assessment tour of the morgues in the two health facilities and were dismayed by their grim state, claiming that the facilities had been jam-packed with unclaimed bodies for over a year.
The special adviser further stated that after the tour, he informed the governor, through a memo, on the need to decongest and rehabilitate the morgues, which he said had literally turned to an eye-sore.
He noted that the approved the memo and due process was followed in carrying out the exercise.
Faduyile said, “Mr. Governor did not hesitate to approve the memo to carry out the proposed mass burial activities, so as to avoid an imminent outbreak of epidemic diseases in the state.”
“In all (the morgues), 87 bodies were identified/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 prints and electronic media commenced on the 1st of August and lapsed on the 21st of August, 2022. Thereafter, preparations for the mass burial commenced.
“On Friday, September 2nd, 2022, the mass burial was carried out, with the protection of security operative.
“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”.