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From Ighomuaye Lucky, Benin
A man identified as Osaro Nappiar, yesterday, visited the site where 20 mummified bodies were kept in an uncompleted building in Ekenwan road, Benin City, the Edo state capital.
He came when the operatives of the Edo State Police Command were on ground to cordon off the building housing the bodies.
Addressing newsmen at the police command, the Police Public Relations Officer, SP Chidi Nwabuzor, said the man worked in when the police were cordoning off the building.
He said the man (Nappiar) narrated that he actually deposited his late mother in the mortuary run by the said Otu, and went to look for fund in order to give her a befitting burial rites.
“As the police were there with other security agencies, a certain man surfaced and claimed that his biological mother was among the mummified bodies. When questions were asked, the man clarified that this man that is on the run (Otu), who was somewhere before at 1st East Circular Road, Benin City, operating there, had the mother’s body deposited there with him.
“He went further to tell us that his mother died at the hospital somewhere at Uselu, and that hospital I cannot mention now because the investigation is still ongoing. I don’t want anything that will jeopardise the police investigation.
“So, when the mother died in that hospital, he took his mother’s body to this Chukwu Otu, where the body was deposited; but from that 2021, he had no money to do the burial of the mother, but when he was now ready, he came down to where Chukwu Otu was operating before but somebody told him that he was no longer there, that he should go down to Ekenwan road, Asoro area, Uzebu quarters.
“When he got there, they asked him to produce evidence and that is the card. He was unable to produce the card. So, they asked him to come on another day, and that is today; and that is why he came down here and we asked for the card. He has produced the card which is now with the police,” Chidi said.
The police, who said Otu was on the run, disclosed that some suspects have been arrested and are helping the police in their investigations.
One of the suspects arrested by the police at the scene, Gideon Friday, denied any involvement in the ritual act, saying he only came to check if his application for the position of a driver had been granted.
“I came to check if my application is granted because I applied for a driving job here. I was told that my contract has expired. So, when I got to this place to ask for the director, some community people came and started beating me up. I told those that were beating me that I only came to check if my application had been granted.
“The community people didn’t listen, yet they kept beating me and later took me to the police station,” he said.
The other suspect, Chimaobi Okewan, said Otu runs a mortuary business and that he was given quit notice and he decided to relocate to his permanent site.
“I was supervising a POP work. The bodies they found there were the ones they transferred from the place they were kept before to this place. The owner of the place is a mortician.
He was told by his landlord to pack out. So, he decided to relocate the corpses to his permanent site which is his own personal building,” he explained.
Meanwhile, the police spokesman, Chidi Nwabuzor, said that such a place could not have been a mortuary. “A mortuary must have a signboard; it must not have a shrine stained with animal blood,” he said.
