Ondo State Government has conducted mass burial for 496 unclaimed corpses at its morgues at the Akure and Ondo complexes of the University of Medical Science Teaching Hospital (UNIMEDTH).
The government said the move was to decongest the morgues.
Many of the corpses were deposited at the morgues for over one year.
Special Adviser to Governor on Health, Prof. Dayo Faduyile, who spoke in a statement said the move was a follow up of an assessment tour of morgues in both hospitals.
Faduyile said he was taken aback at the gory state at the morgues which made him to present a memo on the need to decongest and rehabilitate the morgues.
The Special Adviser said the mass was to avoid an imminent outbreak of epidemic diseases in the state.
He stated that all due process were put in place for a quality and hitch-free mass burial activities.
According to him: ” In all, eighty-seven (87) bodies were identified/known with their name tags while four hundred and nine (409) were unknown and a total of four hundred and ninety six (496) bodies underwent mass burial.
“The 21-day ultimatum as publicised on prints and electronic media commenced on the 1st of August and lapsed on the 21st of August, 2022.Thereafter, preparations for the mass burial commenced.
“The mass burial was carried out, with the protection of security operatives The bodies were buried in a deep grave of 10 by 10 feet wide, and 18 feet depth, at the allocated land by the State government.”