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From Stanley Uzoaru, Owerri
Separatist group Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has kicked against the scheduled mass burial of unclaimed corpses at the morgue of the Federal Medical Centre (FMC) Owerri, Imo State by its management.
A statement on Monday by the media and publicity secretary of the group, Emma Powerful, described the decision taken by the management of the institution as an affront and insult to Igbo culture and tradition.
The Igbo separatist group has alleged that the corpses recently announced for the mass burial were those innocently murdered by the security agencies.
The statement reads in part:
‘Our attention has been drawn to the plan by the Federal Medical Centre Owerri and Aladimma hospital to bury our brothers and sisters who were innocently murdered and slaughtered in cold blood by the wicked Nigeria security operatives in Imo State in a mass grave.
‘The mortuary of FMC Owerri is filled with corpses of innocent Biafran youths slaughtered by security forces in different parts of Imo State, and they now want to hurriedly bury them in a mass grave. What an affront to our culture and tradition, what an insult to the spirit of the dead and the bereaved families.
‘The security agencies have always denied being in the custody of the victims after abducting them only for their corpses to the dumped at the FMC mortuary. Some of the Biafran youths abducted by security agents in Imo State were taken to various secret cells in the North where they are now languishing under severe and inhuman torturing.’
Powerful called for a thorough investigation into how the mortuary was filled up with corpses and slated for burial by FMC while advising those behind the mass burial to rescind their decision and search for owners of the corpses.
‘We are, therefore, warming the Chief Medical Directors, CMDs and the Management of these two hospitals as well as the Commissioner for Health, Imo State to quickly jettison this plan. It is inhuman to bury the victims in mass graves when their owners are still searching for them.’
FMC through its public relations officer, Jacinta Achonu, on Wednesday had given a two weeks ultimatum to residents of the State who might be looking for their loved ones to check the mortuary of the institution before they are given a mass burial.
Achonu had also denied the morgue of FMC taken above its capacity just as she also said there is no corpses of genocide deposited at their facility.
According to her, it is a normal routine for the management every two or three years to have a mass burial for unclaimed corpses that has stayed over two or more years
‘Not that we do not have spaces again in our mortuary, we just want to decongest the place so that we can accommodate new ones.
‘Sometimes this delay of carrying corpses so late is part of our culture here, we allow corpses to stay for long while building houses in preparation for a funeral ceremony,’ Achonu explained.
‘We have been doing this for several years, we even did it last year. I don’t know why this year should be different, some of your people asked us if we had corpses deposited by security agents and we told them no and they saw for themselves,’ Achonu stated.
