Police arrest hospital workers for mutilating corpse

The Police in Osun State have arrested the doctor and other workers of Tinu-Ola Clinic and Maternity Centre, Osogbo, following the alleged mutilation of the corpse of a 60 year old woman, who died at the hospital.

Our correspondent gathered on Thursday that the woman identified as Iya Waliat, was taken to the hospital by her neighbours on Wednesday night after she complained of an illness.

A young boy was said to have been left to run the errands for the deceased at the hospital. But after some hours, the boy was said to have gone to a nearby house to use the toilet.

He was allegedly prevented from entering into the hospital when he returned from the toilet and was told that the woman had died.

Residents living near the hospital said the boy was not allowed to see the corpse of the woman and he went home to inform others. The hospital workers reportedly prevented those who came from seeing the woman and persuaded them to come to collect the corpse very early on Thursday.

Family members of the deceased were said to have expressed shock when they saw the corpse of the woman on Thursday morning and discovered that some parts of her body were missing.

The main entrance to the hospital was locked with a padlock when our correspondent visited.

One of the people seen at the hospital, who identified herself as a daughter of the deceased, Waliat Raji, told journalists that the corpse was still inside the hospital, saying she and others decided to stay to ensure that nothing happened to the remains of her mother again.

She said,” Part of her lower lip was cut off, the tip of the nose is missing and somewhere close to her eye was mutilated.

“They wanted us to come and collect her corpse very early in the morning because they knew it would be difficult to prove that they cut some parts of her body after we might have taken her home.

“It could also be that we would hurriedly bury her because she was a Muslim and there would be no wasting of time.

“But it is not true that her private part was cut off. Those areas I mentioned are the missing parts. We want the police to find the person that cut those body parts and what they wanted to use them for.”

Efforts to speak to any of the workers of the hospital proved abortive because there was no official at the hospital when our correspondent visited.

When call was put across to the telephone number on the signpost of the Hospital, a female voice who picked the call said she was not the current proprietor of the hospital.

The Police Public Relations Officer in Osun State, Mrs. Folasade Odoro, did not pick the calls put across to her telephone. She also has yet to respond to the text message sent to her.

However, a policeman, who pleaded not to be named, told our correspondent at Dugbe Police Station where the case was reported that the case had been transferred to the Police Headquarters for proper investigation.

A police source at the police headquarters, Osogbo told our correspondent that the case was being investigated by the Criminal Investigating Department.

He said, “The case was brought here not too long ago. It was taken to the CID and I heard the officers there are preparing to go and remove the corpse.

“Hospital workers and complainants had been taken to the CID for interrogation.”