Son wants probe of father’s missing body parts in Yola mortuary

A son of the late Enoch Aubature, whose body was dismembered at the Specialist Hospital Mortuary in Yola, the Adamawa State capital, has called for a probe of the circumstances surrounding the disappearances of the nose and some other parts of his father’s body, just one day in its custody.

Narrating the incident to The Guardian, second son of the deceased, Mr. Alfred Enoch, said that his father’s body was deposited at the mortuary on December 25, last year, but the following day, December 26, his elder brother received a call from one of the mortuary attendants requested to see him urgently.

Alfred, who is from Kuma village in Song Council of the state, said on the arrival of his elder brother, his father’s body was brought out from the mortuary badly dismembered.

“The mortuary attendant claimed that when the body was brought on December 25, there was no space until December 26, when one of the bodies from a Southeast state was removed before our father was taken inside the mortuary.

“When we invited the Police from the Criminal Investigating Department (CID), there was no record that a single corpse was removed on the date the mortuary attendant claimed. 

“The nose of my father and many other important human parts were all removed. The mortuary attendant then said there were some lizards that eat bodies in the mortuary. We asked him to show us the type of lizards that eat human body, but he could not,” he maintained.

Alfred, who called on the state government to set up a panel to investigate the matter, pointed out that his father’s case was one of many other such cases, which the deceased relatives ignored due to their lack of access to the media.

“We want to exposed the evil things that are going on at the hospital and government must put in place strong penalties to end such inhuman and barbaric activities in an institution that is supposed to protect and respect human dignity, but end up doing business with human parts kept in its care and custody,” he said.

When The Guardian contacted the Chief Medical Director (CMD) of the hospital, Dr. Bala Saidu, he confirmed the incident, but declined to speak further on basis that the case was already under Police investigation.

“I don’t want to speak on this matter now, because the case is before the Police. They may take it to court, so I don’t want say anything that may affect the Police investigation,” he said.

The Guardian investigations revealled that there had been many such cases in the same hospital in the past few months.

It was alleged that the hospital mortuary is the most patronised department during midnight. 

A security personnel in the hospital, who spoke to The Guardian on condition of anonymity, said: “If you come to our mortuary around 2 to 3am, you would think it is Jimeta Central Market. Only jeeps visit the place at that time.

“We were wondering what is going on in that place until this case come to our knowledge,” he stated.