The police have accused three mortuary attendants, Michael Olusegun, Oluseyi Olamide and Adetunji Aliyu, of removing a dead woman’s heart and chopping off her wrists at a hospital in Ikorodu area of Lagos State.
Olusegun, 65; Olamide, 41; and Aliyu, 45, were on Thursday brought before a Yaba Chief Magistrates’ court in Lagos on a two-count charge of conspiracy and misconduct with regards to a body.
Prosecuting Superintendent of Police (ASP) Roman Unuigbe, alleged that the defendants committed the offences on November 16, at St. Raphael Divine Mercy Hospital in Ijede, Ikorodu area of Lagos. The court heard that one Anthony Lawani lodged a complaint to the police that the body of his sister, 51-year-old Mary Ehinlaiye, which was deposited at the morgue, was missing.
Unuigbe said: “The complainant went to the mortuary to collect his sister’s body for burial but the attendants could not present the body to him. It was later discovered that they had exchanged the body for another one and the family of the other deceased had buried his sister as their own.
“They secretly went to the mortuary and exchanged the bodies and tried to return her to her brother without two wrists and a heart. Fortunately, Lawani discovered the missing parts and drew the attention of the police to the situation.”
The offence, the prosecutor added, contravened sections 165 (b) and 411 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2015. (Revised). The defendants pleaded not guilty.
Chief Magistrate Peter Ojo admitted each defendant to bail in the sum of N500,000 with two sureties in the like sum. One of the sureties must be a blood relation and must be resident within the court’s jurisdiction.The case was then adjourned till January 30, 2019 for trial.