Deadline: Residents move corpses from morgues

From Jimoh Ahmed, Ikare Akoko

Few days to expiration of the one month ultimatum given by Ondo state government to owners of corpses in government hospitals across the state to take them away from the morgues, there has been a rush to meet the deadline. The Hope can reveal.

Our reporter who monitored the level of response and compliance in the Ondo North Senatorial District said those affected by the ultimatum have been visiting all government hospitals to beat the deadline and also to escape having their loved ones being given mass burial.

In Ipe Akoko, Akoko Southeast Local Government, at the General Hospital in the town, relatives of dead ones who were being kept in the mortuary have been coming to evacuate them for burial.

It was the same story at the Iwaro Oka General Hospital in Akoko Southwest local government area, the State Specialist Hospital, Owo and other government hospitals across the District.

At Ayepe, Iwaro Oka, an octogenarian, late Pa Samuel Agbede was among the five corpses released to their loved ones and buried without crowd just to follow the directive of government and medical experts on social and physical distancing.

A mortuary attendant at the State Specialist Hospital, Ikare Akoko,who did not want his name in print, told The Hope that people who have corpses in the hospitals morgue have been contacted to come for their corpses as a result of the ultimatum given by the state government.

Efforts to get comments from the Chief Medical Director of the State Specialist Hospital, Ikare Akoko, Dr Ade Ogunlade was not successful.