Photo: Mortuary, cemetery attendants arrested for allegedly selling body parts of corpses in their custody

The Lagos State Police Command has arrested seven persons working as mortuary and cemetery attendants at the St. Raphael’s Devine Mercy Specialist Hospital Mortuary in Ikorodu, Lagos state over a missing corpse.

Parading the suspects before newsmen on Friday November 23rd, the state commissioner of police, Edgal Imohimi, said one Athony Lawani, lodged a complain to the police that the body of his sister, 51 year old Mary Ehinlaiye which was deposited at the morgue was nowhere to be found. He had gone to the mortuary to collect his sister’s body for burial but the attendant’s could not present the body to him.

It was later discovered that the mortuary attendants had erroneously handed over the body to another family.

“However, one Olusesi Owamade, aged 41 years, a mortuary attendant, with the approval of his supervisor, Michael Olusegun, aged 65 years, erroneously released the corpse to another family. When the relations of the deceased woman came for the release of the corpse for burial, it was nowhere to be found.  At this juncture, it dawned on the mortuary attendants that they had released the corpse to the wrong persons. To recover the corpse, five grave diggers working at Sabo Cemetery, Ikorodu were contracted by the mortuary attendants to exhume the corpse for onward handover to its owners,” he said.

Edgal said the suspects, Michael Olusegun and Olusesi Owamade who are mortuary attendants and the five gravediggers identified as Razaki Abesopiti, Okeowo Kazeem, Babatunde Giwa, Ade Aliu and Musiliu Yakubu, conspired among themselves and dismembered the body of the deceased by cutting off the two wrists and heart for a yet-to-be determined reason.

“Investigation into this case is in progress, while efforts are on to arrest one of the grave diggers named Anifowoshe, who is currently at large. The case will be charged to court and case file forwarded to the Office of the Directorate of Public Prosecutions (DPP) for legal advice,” he said.