The police command in Ebonyi State has arrested two suspects in connection with the disappearance of the remains of one Mrs. Grace Orjiokoro, an 80-year-old-woman from a mortuary in Afikpo South Local Government Area (LGA) of the state.
DSP Loveth Odah, the Command Public Relations Officer said this when she spoke on Thursday in Abakaliki.
Odah stated that the suspects were workers at the mortuary where the corpse of the woman was kept before it disappeared.
“We have found out that it was a mistake of identification and the Commissioner of Police, Mr. Garba Aliyu has ordered for more investigation to unravel the circumstance behind the matter,” Odah stated.
The family of the deceased had raised an alarm after it discovered that her corpse had vanished from the mortuary in Afikpo South LGA where it was deposited for burial.
Pastor Pastor Fred Okoro, the brother of the deceased told reporters in Abakaliki on Thursday, that Orjiokoro died on July 2, 2021, and was deposited in the mortuary at the General Hospital Owutu Edda in Afikpo LGA.
“The burial was fixed for December 28, 2021. I got the shock of my life when family members went to collect the remains of our sister on the burial day, only to discover that a different corpse was kept in the morgue for us.
“We notice the plot to prevent us from knowing that the corpse was missing a month after the deposit was made as several efforts made by family members to see the condition of the corpse were frustrated by the mortuary attendants.
“They always tell us that the morgue was under fumigation.
“On the burial day, we went to the mortuary to get the corpse for lying in state and burial, only to discover that a strange corpse was presented to us,” Okoro said.