By Athan Agbakwuru, Owerri
Management of the Imo Specialist Hospital, Owerri has announced its decision to conduct mass burial for 36 unclaimed corpses abandoned in the hospital’s mortuary between June 2021 and October 2023.
In a press statement signed and issued by the Chief Medical Director, CMD of the Hospital, Dr Kaunda Ibebuike, the management stated that the mass burial will be conducted in three weeks time but gave no specific date.
The displayed list of corpses showed that 19 out of the 37 unclaimed corpses are unknown and unidentified deceased persons, seven have no tally numbers a mad man, a boy and girl as well as those identified with only their first names abandoned by their depositors.
Dr Ibebuike advised the general public who have missing loved ones to come to the hospital along Port Harcourt Road, Owerri to check for possible identification and collection before the day of the proposed mass burial.
The recent public announcement by the Imo Specialist Hospital re-echoes a similar earlier publication by the authorities of the Federal Medical Centre, FMC, Owerri during the hot days of insecurity in the state.
It recalled that several Imo people were sent to their untimely graves between 2021 and 2023 by both known and unknown gunmen and it is widely believed that the unclaimed corpses could be no other than victims of the reckless killings that bedeviled the state during the period under review.
