The private Catholic-run Godfrey Okoye University (GOUNI) in south-eastern Nigeria’s Enugu state has received court approval to conduct a mass burial of 33 bodies abandoned at the mortuary of its teaching hospital.
Some of the bodies have remained unclaimed for 18 years, the university’s Vice Chancellor Christian Anieke said on Sunday.
The university has given families a 21-day ultimatum to claim the bodies, before the planned mass burial.
“I am appealing to those who have corpses in the mortuary to come and remove them. We are talking about human beings here and not animals. Go and check if your relationship is there,” Mr Anieke was quoted as saying by the Lagos-based Daily Sun newspaper.
The university teaching hospital intends to clear bodies to allow the facility to be upgraded.