Three mortuary attendants narrowly escaped being lynched by an angry mob in Abia State after a deceased man’s testicle was discovered missing from his body at a local mortuary. The incident, which occurred yesterday, took place at a mortuary located between Afoukwu and Abayi Okoroato village, along the Aba-Ikot Ekpene highway in Obingwa Local Government Area.
The situation began when a family arrived at the mortuary to retrieve the body of their deceased relative for burial. During the process, one of the family members, a daughter of the deceased, requested that the body be undressed for a thorough inspection before leaving the mortuary. As the body, which had been dressed in a coffin, was undressed, it was discovered that the testicle was missing.
This discovery sparked immediate outrage among the youths of the surrounding communities, who had accompanied the family to collect the body. Eyewitnesses revealed that the mortuary attendants, fearing the wrath of the mob, tried to flee the scene but were quickly captured by the angry youths.
The situation quickly escalated into chaos as the irate youths began attacking the mortuary. Some destroyed parts of the building, while others vandalized equipment and property they could find. Witnesses reported that the mob voiced their anger, claiming that the mortuary had been involved in the illegal harvesting of body parts for some time.
One of the youths expressed their fury, saying, “We don’t know that this mortuary is involved in such evil business; people have been suspecting him. It is an abomination in Igbo land to sever the body part of a dead person.”
Other witnesses claimed that the mortuary was being operated from an abandoned filling station, further raising suspicions about the nature of the business. The mob’s anger was directed not just at the attendants but also at the owner, who, they believed, had been profiting from these alleged illegal activities.
As tensions continued to rise, some of the families who had previously deposited their deceased relatives at the mortuary arrived to retrieve the bodies, fearing that their loved ones might also be tampered with. One man, identified as Iheanyi, stated that he had gone to the mortuary to transfer his elder brother’s body to another facility, fearing similar tampering.
In response to the escalating violence, officers from the Eastern Ngwa Division of the Nigerian Police Force, based in Umuobiakwa, arrived at the scene. They were able to arrest some of the mortuary attendants who had been caught by the mob. However, as of the latest update, the Abia State Police Command spokesperson, DSP Maureen Chinaka, had not yet responded to inquiries regarding the incident.
