The authorities of the University of Benin Teaching Hospital, UBTH, said it will conduct a mass burial for 270 corpses if the owners fail to claim them within the next six weeks.
Dr Ehizogie Egbeobauwaye Adeyemi, the coordinator of mortuary services at the hospital, disclosed this in an interview with newsmen in Benin City.
Adeyemi gave the breakdown of the corpses as 201 infants and 69 adults.
Dr Adeyemi added that the contact addresses and phone numbers provided by the owners of the corpses to the hospital were no longer reachable or valid.
She said that at the expiration of the six-week ultimatum, the hospital would conduct a mass burial for the unclaimed corpses if the owners failed to claim them.
The hospital’s management, in a statement, gave a six-week ultimatum to the owners of the corpses to claim them.
The statement reads in part: “This is to inform the general public that the management of the University of Benin Teaching Hospital, UBTH, has concluded plans to dispose of all unclaimed corpses that have been in the hospital mortuary for a very long time.
“For the avoidance of doubt, such corpses include those of infants that have been in the mortuary since January 2023 and corpses of adults that have been in the mortuary from April 2021 to December 2022.
