The Management of the Kwara State University Teaching Hospital, Ilorin, has called on individuals who have deposited corpses at the hospital morgue to remove them within two weeks, as reported by Punch.

In a statement made available to the press on Sunday by the Head of the Corporate Affairs Unit, Yakub Aliagan, the hospital said that its mortuary is currently full due to unclaimed corpses.

The hospital management urged the public to take immediate action to ensure that the mortuary can continue to operate effectively and provide necessary services.

“The Management of Kwara State University Teaching Hospital, Ilorin, wishes to announce to the general public that its Mortuary is filled beyond capacity with no available space due to unclaimed bodies.”

It urged people who have corpses in the hospital to retrieve the bodies of their loved ones within two weeks Sunday, December 8 and Saturday December 21, 2024.

It said that the corpses would be considered for mass burial after the time limit given by the management for the removal.

“The management, therefore, implores the general public to come and retrieve the bodies of their relatives and loved ones within the next two weeks from the time of this announcement, after which the Management will consider decongestion through mass burial”, the statement said.

Also in a move to discourage excessive storage of deceased bodies in mortuaries, the Enugu State Government in October 2024, announced the payment of N40 by owners of a corpse once it was not buried within 24 hours. The amount, however, will continue to count daily.

The Mortuary Tax circular addressed to all mortuary attendants in the state, read, “Kindly ensure that owners of corpses make the payments before collection of the corpses for burial and then remit same to the ESIRS in any commercial bank under the mortuary tax in Enugu State IGR Account.”

On September 18, 2024, the Osun State Police Command announced the arrest of seven suspects for selling human parts and water used to bathe corpses in the state.

The command said the arrests followed credible information from a concerned individual that a mortuary attendant at Ipetu-Ijesa identified as Johnson Daniel, was selling remains of corpses deposited at the mortuary where he worked to native doctors.