From Jude Chinedu, Enugu
For months, some even years, over 300 corpses have been lying in the Enugu State University of Science and Technology Teaching Hospital (ESUTH) mortuary, abandoned and forgotten. Now the hospital says it has no choice but to clear them out.
The hospital’s chief medical director, Prof. Bethrand Ngwu, last week, issued a final notice to the families of the deceased, urging them to retrieve their loved ones before the end of March 2025.
According to him, failure to do so within three weeks would result in the permanent disposal of the bodies, and the hospital will bear no liability.
Ngwu stated: “This announcement serves as a final notice to anyone whose relative or friend’s body has been in the hospital for six months or more to claim it.
“Failure to do so within three weeks after this announcement means all unclaimed bodies will be permanently disposed of, and the hospital will not be held responsible.”
But why are so many bodies left unclaimed? Is it because families cannot afford burials, or have they simply moved on? And when the hospital disposes of them, what really happens?
This is not the first time a hospital in Nigeria has faced this issue. Across the country, public mortuaries are filled up with unclaimed bodies, and ESUTH is no exception.
In December 2024, the Kwara State University Teaching Hospital (KWASUTH), Ilorin, carried out a mass burial for an undisclosed number of bodies abandoned by relatives.
The hospital’s head of corporate affairs, Yakubu Aliagan, stated that the decision was necessary due to extreme congestion, as the facility had exceeded its mortuary capacity.
Earlier in May 2024, the University of Benin Teaching Hospital (UBTH) announced plans to dispose of 270 unclaimed bodies, if not retrieved within six weeks. The bodies, which included infants and adults, had remained in the hospital for extended periods.
Similarly, in September 2022, the Ondo State government buried 496 unclaimed bodies from health centers across the state. The mass burial, carried out in a mass grave, was part of efforts to clear the overwhelmed mortuaries at the Akure and Ondo complexes of the state’s University of Medical Science Teaching Hospital (UNIMEDTH).
Francis Faduyile, the special adviser on health to the then-governor, Rotimi Akeredolu, described the state of the morgues as alarming, with unclaimed bodies left for over a year.
Back in 2019, the Ekiti State University Teaching Hospital reported 42 unclaimed bodies, some of which had been abandoned since 2014. The hospital cited financial struggles and emotional trauma as key reasons why families failed to claim the bodies.
In 2015, Cross River State recorded over 1,000 unclaimed corpses in public and private mortuaries. This led the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital to conduct a mass burial for over 200 unclaimed bodies in 2013, while the Calabar General Hospital disposed of more than 100 bodies in 2015 due to a lack of space.
The reasons for abandonment vary, but experts point to several key factors. In many parts of Nigeria, burials are big deals. Families sometimes leave bodies in the mortuary for months while trying to raise money for elaborate funeral ceremonies. Some eventually give up.
Many of the unclaimed bodies belong to accident victims, crime victims, or unknown persons whose families never come forward. In some cases, conflicts over inheritance or burial rites cause delays and, before long, the body is forgotten.
On the other hand, some people relocate and lose touch, while others simply do not bother retrieving the remains of their deceased relatives.
A mortuary attendant at ESUTH, who spoke to Daily Sun, said it has become difficult to manage the number of bodies in their morgue as the facility is overcrowded.
“We don’t have space. Some bodies have been here for over two years. The smell, the workload, it’s too much. Many families just dump their dead here and never return,” he lamented.
With the deadline fast approaching, the big question is: What will happen to the unclaimed bodies? Prof. Ngwu made it clear that the hospital will follow the usual process of mass burial, as provided by law.
When contacted, Mr. Chinedu Okeke, a lawyer, explained that hospitals have the right to dispose of unclaimed corpses after a certain period, but proper documentation and a dignified burial must be ensured.
“The hospital cannot keep these bodies forever, but they must ensure everything is done properly. Records must be properly kept, mass graves must be marked, and the government must be fully involved,” he said.
On his part, a traditionalist and opinion leader in Ogbele community in Obollo-Afor, Udenu Local Government Area of Enugu State, Chief Mike Udeze, said that though the government’s plan goes against Igbo tradition, no one could question them.
He further clarified that the only time bodies are buried outside the deceased’s fatherland is when the person died by suicide or when he drowned, as is the practice in some riverine communities in Igboland.
He said: “In Igboland, the only time someone’s corpse is thrown away is when that person killed himself. Another instance in some cultures in Igboland is when someone drowns in a river. The person is buried beside the riverbank. Cultures in Igboland vary.
“But the tradition is that one is buried in his fatherland or her husband’s house. But these days with the advent of mortuaries and government regulations, one cannot question the decision of the government.
“The government can go ahead to bury abandoned bodies but they must treat those corpses with dignity. They should be buried well. In Igboland, corpses are not treated anyhow. We don’t discard the dead. But the government in this situation cannot be questioned.”
For families who still have loved ones in the ESUTH mortuary, time is running out. Once the deadline passes, there may be no second chances.
As the hospital prepares for the mass disposal, one thing remains clear, beyond the numbers, these were real people: fathers, mothers, sons and daughters, whose final journey now hangs in uncertainty.