Last week, the Kwara State Government closed down a privately owned mortuary located on Omosebi Street, off Offa Garage in Ilorin South Local Government Area, citing alleged illegal activities as the reason.
The government’s team, led by the Commissioner for Health, Dr Amina Ahmed El-Imam, said the handling of the dead in the facility posed serious health hazards to the community and its environs.
At the time of the operation, Daily Trust gathered that there were close to 100 corpses arranged on wooden beds locally constructed inside the mortuary.
Expectedly, the government’s action reverberated among residents given the popularity of the morgue among medical practitioners, religious leaders and security experts.
Findings by Daily Trust revealed that although the gigantic hospital that housed the morgue stopped operation over a year ago, the activities of the mortuary section continued.
While some saw the facility as an important one for the post-death activities of their loved ones, the management was allegedly involved in ritual activities, organ harvesting and financial enrichment.
Example, an online publication by Afrika Eyes published by popular film maker, Oloba Maroof Adebayo Afolayan, reported that: “The Chief Executive Officer of Almaroof Standard Investment who was allegedly involved in the killing of his friend, Mustapha Balogun, for ritual purposes disposed of the deceased’s body at Omosebi mortuary.
According to the publication, many powerful people, including some security operatives, were secretly using the mortuary as a dumping site whenever they killed their victims.
Afrika Eyes further reported: “It is business as usual. There’s a possibility that they’re using the mortuary for organ harvesting, and the government needs to investigate and arrest the perpetrators. When the morgue was sealed last October, many stakeholders, including a professor, began calling for a reconsideration of the decision, and the owner went behind to open it to commence his illegal business.”
However, the Chief Mortician of the place, Mr Christian Chimezie, described all the allegations as false, insisting that they were the handiwork of fifth columnists and business rivals.
