Posted by By HENRY CHUKWURAH, Port Harcourt on
A widow in Port Harcourt, Rivers State has petitioned the police over the lukewarm attitude of the authorities of Braithwaite Memorial Hospital, Port Harcourt, to her protest following the removal of her husband's eyes while in the hospital mortuary.
A widow in Port Harcourt, Rivers State has petitioned the police over the lukewarm attitude of the authorities of Braithwaite Memorial Hospital, Port Harcourt, to her protest following the removal of her husband's eyes while in the hospital mortuary.
Writing through her lawyer, F.U. Okoro of Okocha and Okocha Manuchim Chambers, Mrs Susan Emoakpona, widow of late Pius Emoakpona would want the state Police Commissioner and the Assistant Inspector General in-charge of Zone Six, to urgently intervene in the matter.
Specifically, she wants the police authorities to "cause proper investigation into the crime" with a view to identifying and prosecuting the culprits.
Recalling the incident, Mrs Emoakpona alleged that shortly after her husband's body was deposited in the mortuary at about 2am, "the Head Nurse on duty prevailed upon the hospital security to order the late man's children who were keeping vigil at the precinct of the mortuary premises" out of the hospital complex.
"It was by an act of God that a good Samaritan motorcycle rider took the children home at that odd time"
Mrs Emoakpona stated that in the morning of April 7, between 8am and 9am when she and her children returned to the mortuary, "both eyes of the late husband had been carefully removed with tell-tale signs of blood stains" all over his face.
"In an attempt to conceal the dastardly act, the shirt won on the late man by the petitioner was torn into pieces and one piece used to tie both empty eye sockets"
The widow complained that although two mortuary attendants who were on duty were later arrested by the Police from the nearby Old GRA Police Station, they were released "almost immediately at the time the police were yet to conclude their investigations."
The action, she said, had left her and her children "in the cold, degraded and helpless" as the remains of her late husband could not be conveyed home for burial.
Mrs Emoakpona reasoned that the swiftness with which the mortuary attendants were taken on bail by the hospital authorities raised a presumption of the existence of a cabal syndicate that specializes in dealing with human parts for unknown purpose"
For this reason, she would want the top hierarchy of the police to personally intervene in the quickest possible time"
Repeated efforts by Daily Sun to get the hospital authorities to comment on the incident were roundly rebuffed.
Although the hospital's Public Relations Officer, Mr Luame Limejuice, referred Daily Sun to the pathologist, Dr.C.N.T. Amakiri, who incidentally, secured the bail of the two mortuary attendants, he (Amakiri) insisted that only the Medical Director could speak on the matter.
However, the medical director through a nurse in his office, declined to see Daily Sun.