Police denies dumping 50 corpses in UNTH mortuary

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The Enugu State Police Command on Monday denied reports that it dumped the corpses of 50 young men at the mortuary of the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital, Enugu.
The command washed its hands off the matter through its spokesman, Mr. Ebere Amaraizu, who spoke to our correspondent.

Amaraizu said the mortuary’s records should reveal the circumstances surrounding the development.
The National Human Rights Commission had, on Friday in Abuja, alleged that 50 corpses, with red marker on them, were dumped by the police in the said morgue.
The rights commission disclosed that the corpses were discovered in the course of investigations into the alleged extra-judicial killing of one Chukwuma Ihezie by personnel of the command’s Special Anti-Robbery Squad.

According to the NHRC, the 50 corpses were discovered in the same mortuary where Ihezie’s body was deposited.

The National Human Right Commission therefore asked the Chief Judge of Enugu State to conduct a coroner’s inquest into the cause of Ihezie’s death, and also investigate the circumstances that led to the alleged dumping of the 50 corpses at the UNTH mortuary.

The NHRC said the investigations would determine whether the killings were extra-judicial, noting that “extra-judicial execution is a violation of right to life contrary to section 33 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999, (as amended); Article 4 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights and Article 6 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.”
But, reacting to the development, the Enugu State Police Command denied any involvement in the alleged dumping of the corpses.

The command’s spokesman, Amaraizu, told our correspondent that the mortuary’s records will state the identity of persons who deposited the said corpses in the morgue, as well as the cause of death.
Amaraizu said it was improper to suggest that the police was guilty of extra-judicial killings.
Efforts to get the response of the hospital’s management were not successful as of the time of filing this report.