Monday, 18 August 2025

Home / Health / Ondo / 402 Abandoned, unidentified, unknown corpses at UNIMEDTH.... Ondo Govt resolves to conduct mass burial

402 Abandoned, unidentified, unknown corpses at UNIMEDTH.... Ondo Govt resolves to conduct mass burial

by KakakiOodua Media Services in Health, Ondo

The Ondo State Government has announced plans to conduct a mass burial for over 400 abandoned and unclaimed corpses at the University of Medical Sciences Teaching Hospital (UNIMEDTH) mortuaries in the Akure and Ondo complexes.

Findings revealed that the 402 corpses, which have been lying in the facilities between 2020 and 2024, have become a growing concern for both the hospital and the state government.

According to a statement signed by the Special Adviser to the Governor on Health, Prof. Michael Simidele Odimayo, subtitled “List of unknown and abandoned bodies in UNIMEDTH Ondo and Akure complexes”, the governor “has approved the mass burial of prolonged abandoned corpses” in the two hospitals.

In line with the directive, the government urged members of the public to come forward and claim the remains of their relatives before the expiration of a 21-day grace period.

It reads, “The office of the Special Adviser to the Governor on Health has completed arrangements to effect the mass burial. The general public is therefore given up to 21 days from the day of this notice to go with evidence and claim the corpses of their relatives/loved ones before the proposed mass burial.”

A breakdown of the figures showed that of the 146 female corpses, 117 remain unidentified, while 29 have been identified.

Among the 256 male corpses, 205 are unknown and 51 can be identified, bringing the total of unclaimed bodies to 402, with 322 of them unknown.

The government noted that the mass burial is necessary not only to free space in the hospital mortuaries but also to protect residents from the environmental and health risks posed by prolonged storage of decomposed bodies.

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