Not less than three mortuary attendants yesterday escaped lynching by irate youths over a dead man’s missing testicle at the facility located between Afoukwu and Abayi Okoroato village, along the Aba-Ikot Ekpene highway, in Obingwa council area of Abia State.
Vanguard gathered that a family who had deposited their son’s remains at the facility had gone to retrieve him for burial when one of their daughters insisted that the corpse be undressed for observation before they left the mortuary.
Following the request, the corpse, which was already dressed inside the coffin, was undressed, and the testicle was found missing.
The situation allegedly angered youths of the surrounding communities who had accompanied the family to the mortuary.
Eyewitnesses told Vanguard that the attendants attempted to flee the scene but were apprehended by the irate youths.
It was a theatre of confusion as some of the youths violently attacked the mortuary. Others destroyed the buildings and other properties they could lay their hands on.
Some of the youths said,” We don’t know that this mortuary is involved in such evil business; people have been suspecting him. It is an abomination in Igbo land to sever the body part of a dead person.
“Now, we have seen what he has done and why his business is flourishing. He was operating his mortuary business in that abandoned filling station. He and his attendants will answer for their crimes.”
Some of the families who had deposited their dead ones at the mortuary came to retrieve them.
A man identified as Iheanyi said he went to the mortuary to relocate the corpse of his elder brother to another mortuary for fear that it may be tampered with.
A source disclosed that police officers from the Eastern Ngwa Division, Umuobiakwa, later stormed the mortuary and arrested some of the attendants who were seized by the rampaging youths.
As of the time of filing this report, the spokesperson of the Abia State Police Command, DSP Maureen Chinaka, had yet to respond to a call and text message sent to her mobile number. (Vanguard)
