The authorities of University of Benin Teaching Hospital (UBTH) have served notice to conduct a mass burial of 270 corpses if the owners fail to claim them in six weeks.
The coordinator of mortuary services at the hospital, Dr Ehizogie Egbeobauwaye Adeyemi, disclosed this in an interview with journalists in Benin City, Edo State.
Adeyemi gave the breakdown of the corpses as 201 infants and 69 adults.
The coordinator said that the contact addresses and phone numbers provided by the owners of the corpses were no longer reachable or valid.
Adeyemi further warned that at the expiration of the six-week ultimatum, the hospital would conduct a mass burial of the unclaimed corpses if the owners fail to claim them.
“This is to inform the general public that the management of the University of Benin Teaching Hospital (UBTH) has concluded plans to dispose of all unclaimed corpses that have been in the hospital mortuary for a very long time.
“For the avoidance of doubt, such corpses include those of infants that have been in the mortuary since January 2023 and corpses of adults that have been in the mortuary from April 2021 to December 2022.
“Consequently, owners of such corpses are hereby given six weeks notice from the date of this publication, to claim the corpse (s),” a statement from the hospital added.
