Ebola: 1000 Igbo corpses held in Lagos

The ban on inter-state movement of corpses owing to measures of curtailing the spread of the Ebola virus, is biting the Igbo people hard as over 1000 of their corpses are currently held in various mortuaries in Lagos, awaiting clearance for movement to the East.

The President of Ohanaeze Ndigbo in Lagos state, Chief Fabian Onwughalu, said this yesterday according to The Nation.

Bemoaning the plight of the deceased and their relations, Chief Onwughalu said: “As I am talking to you now, there are over 1000 dead bodies of Igbo people waiting at various morgues only here in Lagos State for movement to their homeland.

”The ugly development has serious effect on the families of the deceased because in Igbo land, we believe that the moment a late family member is buried, the pains of losing him will gradually fade away. But in a situation where you keep the body of a deceased family member unnecessarily, the pains will be increasing.

“The Federal Government should rescind the decision or decentralise the authority.”
He advised that “the Federal Government should authorise other government health officers and doctors to issue certificates to bereaved families to enable them carry the remains of their deceased ones home for burial.

“If the authority to issue certificate is decentralised such that federal health centres and teaching hospitals would be able to attend to bereaved families and give them certificates within a short time, it will enable our people to convey the remains of their beloved ones to their ancestral homes in line with the traditions of their people.”