Police Arrest Mortuary Workers Over Missing Corpse

The Police in Lagos have arrested seven persons working as
mortuary and cemetery attendants over a missing corpse in their
custody.

The Commissioner of Police in Lagos, CP Imohimi Edgal, disclosed
the arrests to newsmen while parading the suspects and others on
Friday at the command headquarters in Ikeja.

According to Edgal, on Tuesday, Nov. 13, 2018 the Command
received a complaint from one Anthony Lawani, younger brother to
one Mary Ehinlaiye, now deceased, aged 51 years.

The complainant said that the body parts of the deceased were
sliced off by yet-to-be identified persons.

“Based on the complaint, I directed the Deputy Commissioner of
Police, SCIID, Panti, Yaba to investigate the matter.

Preliminary investigation revealed that the corpse of the
deceased was deposited at St. Raphael’s Devine Mercy Specialist
Hospital Mortuary along Ijede Road, Ikorodu, Lagosv, for
preservation.

“However, one Olusesi Owamade, aged 41 years, a mortuary
attendant, with the approval of his supervisor, Michael Olusegun,
aged 65 years, erroneously released the corpse to another
family.

“When the relations of the deceased woman came for the release
of the corpse for burial, it was nowhere to be found.

“At this juncture, it dawned on the mortuary attendants that
they had released the corpse to the wrong persons.

“To recover the corpse, five grave diggers working at Sabo
Cemetery, Ikorodu were contracted by the mortuary attendants to
exhume the corpse for onward handover to its owners,” he said.

The police boss further said that the suspects conspired among
themselves and dismembered the body of the deceased by cutting off
the two wrists and heart for a yet-to-be determined reason.

“Investigation into this case is in progress, while efforts are
on to arrest one of the grave diggers named Anifowoshe, who is
currently at large.

“The case will be charged to court and case file forwarded to
the office of the Directorate of Public Prosecutions (DPP) for
legal advice,” he said.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the suspects were
taken to the State CID, Panti, Yaba in preparation for
arraignment.

Related

Ani-Oforifori: Nigerian Navy Concludes ‘Chase Thief’
Exercise

Military worldwide carry out exercises for different reasons.
While some do so for contemporary security challenges, others
engage in exercises for operational and training purposes. The need
for training and retraining has become expedient to navies of the
world because of the dynamics of security issues. Africa being part
of the world has had its own share of these security challenges.
Some of these threats include; sea piracy, hostage taking, illegal
bunkering, illegal fishing among others.

Nigeria as one of the maritime nations had its share of these
security challenges which include piracy, kidnapping, illegal
bunkering and others. This therefore necessitated the Eastern Naval
Command to carry out EXERCISE ANI-OFORIFORI, meaning ‘Chase Thief’
in Kalabari Language.

According to the Flag Officer Commanding Eastern Naval Command,
Rear Admiral David Adeniran, the conduct of the Exercise was in
furtherance to Chief of the Naval Staff (CNS) Vice Admiral
Ibok-Ette Ibas mission to develop a naval force that is well
trained, organised and highly motivated to discharge its
constitutional roles professionally and efficiently for the defence
of Nigeria in ensuring her economic prosperity.

The Exercise objective was to assess the operational readiness
of ships, gunboats, helicopters and other platforms of the Eastern
Fleet in order to practice skills of personnel in tackling maritime
threats within the Command’s Area of responsibility.

EXERCISE ANI-OFORIFORI gave the Command the opportunity to
ascertain the operational readiness of the Eastern Fleet. The
Exercise was born out of an earlier simulation conducted at the
Simulation Center of the Armed Forces Command and Staff College
Jaji, Kaduna State. The simulation training exercise at the Center
covers Fleet Maneuvers, Steering Gear Failure/Breakdown, Machinery
Breakdown, Visit Board Search and Seizure (VBSS) among others. To
replicate real time situation, the Eastern Naval Command Set to
Sea.

The conduct of EXERCISE ANI-OFORIFORI was carried out in 4
phases; phase one was the preparatory phase which involved training
in various aspects of Seamanship as well as Logistics provision for
participating ships. Phase 2 was the movement phase to designated
Exercise area which dove tail into conduct of the Exercise. The
final stage was the termination stage which ended with entry of all
participating ships into harbour, followed by wash-up and
debrief.

The Exercise gave the Command the opportunity to practice man
overboard, semaphore/flashing, Gunnery, Interrogation of vessels,
Abandoned ship, Boat Operation among others. During boat Exercise,
life buoys were deployed for rescue of simulated Man Overboard
while NNS CENTINARY and NNS BURUTU were contacted for lookout.
Finally, the entire scenario was professionally handled – leaving
Ship Company with great lesson. Another training conducted was in
the area of Abandoned Ship where life raft was deployed for Ship
Company. To many onboard, it was the first time of witnessing the
content of life raft. The balloon-like object contained some
medications/safety materials onboard. Interestingly, the ship
recovered it for teaching aid to personnel.

The importance of communication was exhibited onboard as various
ships while in formations communicated through Semaphore – use of
flags for communication onboard. According to the Command
Operations Officer, Commodore AO Bamidele, Semaphores were the
earliest form of communication adopted by ships. He however
stressed that where all forms of communication failed onboard, the
last option is to adopt semaphore; he further stated that sign and
symbol form of communication is safer because it is secured among
ships. Therefore practicing it will give personnel opportunity to
be abreast with it.

In the area of gunnery exercise, participating ships conducted
series of gunnery by engaging identified targets at sea. Various
calibre of weapons onboard were test fired by ship company. The
exercise reinforces marksmanship skills of personnel. In a related
development, during the Exercise, ships patrolled the entire
Eastern flank of Nigeria’s maritime environment and in the process
interrogated several vessels in the area. Some of the oil fields
and terminals in the area include; Yoho oil terminal, Ima oil
terminal, Okono oil terminal, Oso Gas field, Usari oil field,
Terminal Ebok and Antan. Others are, Qua Iboe terminal, Kwa Ibo and
a host of others.

The Eastern Naval Command sea EXERCISE ANI-OFORIFORI 2018 was
concluded with a debrief onboard Nigerian Navy Ship OKPABANA. Some
of the security/law enforcement maritime agencies that participated
in the exercise include representatives of the Nigerian Air Force,
Nigeria Police, National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, Nigerian
Security and Civil Defence Corp, Nigerian Customs, Nigerian
Immigration and Nigeria Maritime and Administration and Safety
Agency.

It should be noted that, the Exercise was also conducted
simultaneously by Operations units under the Eastern Naval Command
in pursuant to same objective to rid the creeks of all forms of
criminality. These units include Nigerian Navy ship JUBILLEE,
Nigerian Navy Ship PATHFINDER And Nigerian Navy Ship VICTORY as
well as Forward Operations bases BONNY in Rivers and IBAKA in Akwa
Ibom States respectively.

Commander Thomas Otuji
Information Officer
Eastern Naval Command