An epidemic may be getting ready to break out in Magumeri local government of Borno State as corpses are now being left unattended. The mortuary facilities of the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital have been overstretched.
A senior official of the hospital made the revelation to TheCable. The official revealed that 35 bodies were currently lying unattended to because the morgue had been overstretched.
“The victims include 12 soldiers, five university lecturers, 13 civilian JTF from Magumeri, two NNPC staff and some that were brought yesterday by the military,” he said.
“Even the corpse of Dr J.V Militus, the senior lecturer at UNIMAID, is rotting away, with no one to claim it. The whole hospital is smelling. Everyone is worried… we are scared of an outbreak of disease.”
No official statement has been made by UMTH.
On Tuesday, Boko Haram fighters laid an ambush for a team of geologists who were on an oil exploration exercise in Lake Chad basin.
The team comprised staff of Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and those of the University of Maiduguri (UNIMAID).
The oil experts, as well as soldiers and members of the civilian joint task force (CJTF) who provided security for them, were killed in the attack.
The casualty figure has not been confirmed.
The army had initially said it rescued all the oil workers that were abducted by the sect, but at a press briefing in Abuja on Thursday, Ibe Kachikwu, minister of state for petroleum resources, said he could not confirm the claim of the military.
It was widely reported that five staff of UNIMAID were killed, while four were declared missing.
Chairman of the UNIMAID chapter of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, Danny Mamman, had also corroborated the report, at a briefing in Maiduguri blaming the army for misleading the public.
“We were first elated when we heard that the military rescued the victims. But, to our dismay we discovered that they were all killed,” Mamman had said.
“Our initial hope to see them alive was dashed. The soldiers brought only dead bodies.”
