Police debunk alleged removal of corpse’s eyes in Gombe morgue

Gombe State Police Command, yesterday, dismissed an allegation by a deceased family over removal of a corpse’s eyes at the Federal Teaching Hospital’s morgue.

Spokesperson for the Command, Mahid Muazu Abubakar, on Wednesday, said an autopsy revealed that all the deceased’s eyes were intact, dismissing the reports as false and unfounded.

He said:  “On Tuesday, September 26, one Bilyaminu Dogara Campbell, (m), of Tumfure quarters Gombe, went to the Gombe Divisional Police Headquarters and reported that his aunt, Halima Ibrahim, 61, who died while receiving treatment at the Federal Teaching Hospital, Gombe on Friday, September 22 with her corpse deposited at the said hospital mortuary for preservation.

“On the same day, the deceased’s relatives claimed that they went to prepare the corpse for burial, but discovered that blood was coming out from the deceased left eye, which raised suspicion that the eye might have been removed at the hospital’s mortuary.”

He added that the Commissioner of Police (CP) Oqua Etim, directed the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) to conduct discreet investigations to ascertain circumstances surrounding the incident.

According to him, the Command deployed police operatives at the hospital’s gate to protect the facility and prevent breach of public peace.

“The management of the hospital appealed to the aggrieved persons for calm and conducted an autopsy on the deceased body in the presence of relatives, and the result shows that all the two eyes were intact.

“This has doused the tension and the crowd who gathered outside the hospital’s gate dispersed peacefully, having noticed that the allegations were baseless.

The allegations are false and unfounded, and the tension was orchestrated by mischief makers to incite disturbance of public peace in the state,” he said.

He said the police are investigating the perpetrators of the false alarm to bring them to book.