UCTH to Conduct Mass Burial of Over 50 Unclaimed Corpses on October 21

The University of Calabar Teaching Hospital (UCTH) has announced plans to conduct a mass burial of more than 50 unclaimed corpses that have remained in its morgue for years, with some reportedly kept for over a decade.

The hospital management said the bodies had remained unclaimed beyond the statutory 90-day period, despite efforts to locate their relatives. The prolonged storage has also left the morgue with insufficient space to accommodate additional bodies.

Dr David Ushie, chairman of the Special Task Force on the Evacuation of Abandoned and Unclaimed Corpses at UCTH, said the hospital had fixed Wednesday, October 21, 2026, for the exercise following a three-week grace period.

Ushie urged families and individuals with relatives whose bodies remain in the morgue to identify and retrieve them before the deadline. He warned that the hospital would proceed with the mass burial if the corpses remained unclaimed.

“The October 21 deadline remains firm. The hospital would not issue another notice before carrying out the mass burial,” he stressed.

Speaking on behalf of the hospital’s Chief Medical Director, Professor Ikpeme Ikpeme, Deputy Chairman of the Medical Advisory Committee for Clinical Services, Dr Stephen Ogbudu, attributed the growing number of unclaimed bodies partly to the rising cost of burial ceremonies and cultural practices that place significant financial responsibilities on bereaved families and their in-laws.

Ogbudu said the directive covered bodies kept in the mortuary beyond 90 days from the date they were deposited. He added that some had remained there for more than 10 years, making the evacuation necessary to ease pressure on the facility, improve sanitation and provide a better environment for clinical services.

The hospital has reiterated its appeal to families to come forward before the October 21 deadline. According to the management, the planned exercise is intended to address the long-standing accumulation of unclaimed bodies and restore space in the morgue.