Why should dead bodies be left to decompose unattended to in the open in this day and age? Is it the collapse of a system, bureaucratic bottleneck or ignorance of the dangers to society? These are the questions Daniel Adeleye sought answers to; as he attempted to unravel the reason behind what has become an eyesore in parts of Ogun State.
Dateline: Tuesday, July 26 2016
Time: 7:45
Location: Asbestos/Imperial area, off Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway
A blast of cold filled the air, as workers trooped in their large numbers to resume at their various offices/work-places. Many more were still trooping out of the popular Lagos yellow mini-buses otherwise known as danfo, while some had come in via the Lagbuses. Asbestos/Imperial area in Sango-Ota is not new to such hurly-burly and human and vehicular traffic due to the huge presence of factories cottage industries in the area and Sango-Ota area in general.
The axis also serves as gateway to neighbouring Republic of Benin as well as other satellite settlements, hence the daily crowd of people, especially on work days. The same scenario plays out every end of work, naturally. But there is something unusual this particular morning. Even before he caught the foul air, this reporter had noticed a certain briskness in the passers-by as they surged ahead of him.
More unusually, nearly everybody covered their noses. Some with their palms, others with hankerchiefs. Those who didn’t have handkerchiefs, made do with tips of their clothes, and some – the females – used their handbags; whatever that was meant to achieve.
Huge odoriferous stench rent the air, which grew stronger as movement progressed. Just as this reporter made to ask what it was that was causing such atmospheric discomfort, he spotted a lifeless body of a human being right ahead of him, already decomposing. The wind wailed, as bottle flies buzzed with excitement, even as people warded them off from coming near them. Women held their breasts; children recoiled with fear and horror, holding tight onto their mothers; while the men shook their heads in pity and dismay, even as they spat out their contaminated spittle.
Many cursed their luck that brought them that way; and many like this reporter, must have wondered why the corpse was left to rot away in the open and become such a nuisance in this day and age. What exactly are the relevant authorities doing?
But that is just one instance. The most recent as a matter of fact.
Dateline: Monday December 21, 2015
Location: Sango Overhead Bridge
One cannot forget in a hurry the horrific image of a decomposing corpse, dumped right on the Sango Overhead Bridge, not too far from the site of the above narrative. As is typical of a Monday, people were heading for their normal business activities, with many hoping for a fruitful week, especially with the harsh economy that was beginning to bite really hard, following the downturn in global crude oil price. But lo and behold, a young woman’s corpse lay conspicuously on the bridge. You really couldn’t miss it, except if you took some other alternative route or lucky to have somebody warn you ahead.
Worse, her private parts had been removed; giving way to suspicion that the victim was killed for ritual.
Most disappointingly, the carcass remained on the spot for several days, probably weeks, constituting unimaginable discomfort to road users and people going about their business activities at the makeshift market below the bridge… until whatever was left was mercifully evacuated just before Christmas.
Of course, it left a sour taste on the palate of those whom, for certain reasons, inevitably had to pass through or near the spot during those horrible days.
A source told The Nation that the fear of indiscriminate arrests by the police caused many to desert the place. One of them, a lady said, “Nobody could tell how the corpse got there, so nobody wanted to be saddled with the responsibility of writing a statement and explaining what they knew nothing about.
Headless body at Ijako/Owode
No sooner had the Sango-Overhead Bridge people heaved a sigh of relief and began enjoying free air again, than the horror shifted to Ijako/Owode axis, also in Ado-Odo/Ota Local Government Area. A headless body, most probably another victim of ritualists, lay by the roadside, causing commotion and literally shutting down commercial activities in its immediate environment. Walking past, especially in the later days of the rotting corpse became a sight only for the steel-minded, while the poignant odour caused many to nearly suffocate, as they tried unsuccessfully to hold out the bad air.
The horror lasted some odd days; and that was despite repeated calls on the appropriate quarters in the local government to wake up to their duty.
Lagos-Ibadan Expressway Long Bridge
Recently, another corpse was left to rot in the open for days at Kara area of Obafemi-Owode Local Government, by the long bridge along the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, as one approached Lagos. It caused such huge atmospheric discomfort, until the Fulani herdsmen, who graze their cattle in the area, were left with no choice but to cover it with sawdust and cremate it.
According to residents and regular passers-by, about three such cases had earlier occurred in the last four months in that axis, which falls under the control of Obafemi Owode and Ifo Local Governments. They alleged that it is either the relevant government agencies came late or never came at all, leaving the decomposing corpses to literally disappear through the help of natural elements like the sun, wind, rain and unsuspecting pedestrians.
Sagamu Local Government is not left out in this tales of woe. Around July 2014, a few days to the annual Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) convention, a corpse was dumped directly opposite the Redemption Camp along the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway. The corpse was ignored for days until it ruptured and pandemonium broke. All businesses and human activities around the area literally shut down until the remains were mercifully evacuated.
Shame of a state
The above may just be few of cases like this in Ogun State. Going by the indices, it may also be concluded that the departments responsible for keeping the environment free of such unclaimed human corpses, lack direction and therefore need some rejuvenating. Ogun State is by all ramifications, a frontline state in Nigeria and perhaps Africa, when it comes to civilisation, having enjoyed some of the earliest contacts with the modern world. The state boasts of some of the most recognisable elites the nation has ever produced, including the best educational heritage and facilities dating as far back as over a century and half; not to talk of its enviable position as host to the highest number of universities in the country. Add this to what has been acclaimed as the state’s remarkable performance in terms of revenue generation and infrastructural development and you begin to wonder where the crack occurred.
Do the local governments under which these ugly occurrences play out understand the plight of people living and doing business in these areas? What is the supervisory ministry doing? Is it that Oke-Mosan, the seat of the Ogun State government never listens to the radio or television? Do they even understand the health implications for the people, and the psychological impact such decomposing corpses could be having on young people? What does such negligence portend of our regard for the human being?
At the Imperial/Asbestos area late July, the first direct respondent to The Nation’s enquiries was Adekunle, a carpenter, who had come to help his colleague on a furniture job in the area. Many people, including those who operate small businesses in kiosks in the area and even managements of some of the big and medium scale companies around declined to comment. But Adekunle, who wore a deep pensive expression, chided government officials, for their failure to act with speed, thereby leaving the corpse to decompose and cause the public so much hardship.
He said the odour that emanated from the corpse so decimated him psychologically, that it took him two days to fully get himself back.
“As far as I’m concerned, we don’t have a responsible government in this part of the world and it’s very sad. Immediately the corpse was sighted here, we learned from a reliable source that companies around us here teamed up and went to complain at the local government, but yet there was no intervention.
“I came here to work that Monday, but after spending a few hours, I had to leave because of the bad stench emitting from the corpse. I know how much I spent to treat myself before I could regain myself. Thank God I didn’t bring my son, who had insisted on coming with me.”
Even though the corpse had finally been interred about 24 hours before The Nation got to this particular scene, the stench generated still filled the atmosphere. The refusal of the companies to comment on the matter made it difficult to understand how much the incident affected their activities and productivity or how much pressure they even put on the authorities. However, a protocol officer who didn’t want either his name or that of his company mentioned, said when they got to the director of Water Supply and Environmental Sanitation in Ado-odo/Ota Local Government on a Monday, two days after the corpse was dumped at a junction leading to their company, they were told at the environmental office that the police and Chief Magistrate needed to sign a warrant paper before such corpse could be evacuated. They said without these signed papers, the environmental department of the council could not do anything.
He however said the story remained the same when they went back the following day. By Wednesday, the head of the environmental section told them that both the police and the Chief Magistrate of Sango-Ota division had assented to the warrant form, but the post- mortem had to be done on the body before it could be buried.
He said: “At this point, we pleaded with the officer that even if the post- mortem would be done before the burial, they should at least evacuate it from the spot to the mortuary. But he insisted that his department would not do anything until all the due processes were followed.”
On the impact on his organisation, he said, it constituted psychological trauma on their workers and customers; and that’s aside the health and environmental hazards.
“Our workers and customers were more or less having their freedom of movement infringed, because most of them started nursing fears of possible indiscriminate arrest by the police. Nobody could explain how the corpse got there, whether it was a victim of assailants or ritualists and investigation could be going on underground.
“And for us as a company and the kind of products that we produce, it is important for us to do away with anything that could contaminate our environment,” he explained.
The role of the public health officers can definitely not be over-emphasized in this regard. They have control of all factors that may have direct or indirect effect on physical, social or mental wellbeing of citizens in the society. The question however is if they are still really up to the task. Why are they treating cases of decomposing corpse with kid gloves?
In his own submission, the Director of Water Supply and Environmental Sanitation, Ado-odo/Ota Local Government, Alhaji Isiaka Alabi Onifade, told our reporter that in any organised entity, there are usually procedures that must be followed in doing things. He said environmental and health officials have no power of their own to bury any corpse, whose source of death had not been ascertained.
He opined that the delay in evacuating corpses in public places often comes from the police and the magistrate, who must sign the warrant form, before evacuation and burial could take place.
“There are some steps which have to be taken before we can do anything. Nowadays, a judge will request for a pathological report on such a body before signing the warrant paper for the burial; and it takes a whole lot of time to get a pathologist,” he stressed.
Asked why such corpse could not be deposited in the morgue, while the other steps follow, Onifade said it’s not their duty to carry such corpse to the mortuary, but the police’s. “Ours is to seek the last solution to such corpse.” He said.
He continued: “In this era when all tiers of government are struggling to pay workers’ salaries, people cannot be dying anyhow and they expect that government alone has the responsibility of burying them.”
He said formerly, it’s only the police that needed to sign, but that has since changed and the magistrate must also sign. He explained that these agents are not under the control of local governments, hence the usual delay.
Onifade therefore tasked the general public that it’s the duty of all to maintain healthy and sanitary environment and not just the designated health officials as they think. “People should be very vigilant. If they discover any such corpse in their areas, they should, as a point of duty, report immediately to the appropriate quarters, so that the process can commence immediately.” He concluded.
Reaffirming Alabi’s stance, the supervisory councilor for health in Ado-odo/Ota Local Government, Hon. Olaleye Owolabi, said unless such a case is reported directly to his office, he may not be aware because he cannot be everywhere.
Owolabi, said one of the contending issues confronting government is that people don’t really see it as part of their duties as citizens to report such cases to the appropriate quarters.
“Sometimes people will see such and look away. That is one of the challenges we’re facing as a government. If they report such cases to the police early enough, the police will go to magistrate and the two bodies will perfect the warrant for us to take prompt action.”
“But without this process, there is nothing anybody can do. The corpse may have its own family (and one cannot just evacuate and bury).” He reiterated.
Delay not from us, the police
The term ‘warrant’ refers to a specific type of authorisation issued by a competent officer, usually a police or a judge, as the case maybe, that permits an otherwise illegal act that would violate individual rights and afford the person executing the written protection from damages when the act is performed.
A police source at Sango-Ota Divisional headquarters, who spoke to The Nation off record and preferred anonymity, said the delay came as a result of the time the corpse was dumped and absence of the magistrate to append her signature on the warrant form for the burial.
He explained that “The corpse was dumped during the weekend, and on Monday when the Magistrate at Sango-Ota Division was to sign the warrant, we were told she was not around. And without her assent, there is nothing we could do as police. On Tuesday when she came, she requested for the pathological reports before she signed, so on our own expense, we went to get a pathologist from Abeokuta, who did the post-mortem on the corpse before the magistrate finally signed the warrant.”
Our source however declined comments on why the previous cases were not promptly attended to.
‘You don’t need a magistrate’s signature’
Reacting to the above assertions in Abeokuta, the Chief Registrar of Ogun State Judiciary, Mr Olusola Oloyede Esq, debunked that a magistrate needs to sign a warrant form before health officials could do their jobs.
Oloyede affirmed that it is the duty of health officials to remove such corpses; and that a magistrate only needs to sign a corona’s reports carried on such corpse after it has been removed from public view.
Oloyede said: “It is the duty of health officials to remove corpses on the roads. After they have removed it and maybe corona is being done on the corpse, that is only when magistrate could be involved, to sign the corona’s reports.”
He therefore declared unequivocally that it is the health officials who have failed in their responsibilities.”
It’s grave danger – MD,
The medical director, Ogun State General Hospital, Ota, Dr Adedayo Sobanjo, confirmed that bodies left unattended to indeed pose grave danger to health and the risk of spreading epidemics becomes very high.
“The flesh of human being or any animal, if left open or even buried underground will have to decompose. If it is underground, it may not pose any danger, but if it is left in an open place, maggots will begin to feast on it and bacteria would escape into the air. The people around there are also prone to being infected from the bacterial that come into the decomposing bodies”, he explained.
Sobanjo also added that such bodies in the open places can actually pollute water, if there is any source of water, especially stream or river, which people use for their needs, around the scene. “Yes, it constitute dangers for people around, such decomposing bodies can contaminate water.”
