Catholic Priest Condemns Rising Killings Of Youths In Imo

As FMC To Begin Mass Burial Of Unclaimed Corpses Littered In Its Mortuary This Week

By Sampson Uhuegbu, Owerri

The Bishop of Owerri Catholic Archdiocese, Reverend Anthony J.V. Obinna, has decried the gruesome manhunts going on in Imo by the Nigerian military and operatives of Nigerian Police.

The clergyman made this condemnation while delivering a homily on Sunday, during a mass celebration with the Owerri Archdiocesan Council of Catholic Men Organization, held at Maria Assumpta Cathedral, Owerri.

Archbishop Obinna said: “I am very worried about the senseless killing of our youths. I am extremely worried that scores of unidentified corpses are lying in the FMC mortuary. They are in varying degrees of decomposition”.

He continued, “I visited the FMC morgue in the past week and what I saw in the place, shocked me beyond description. I saw what I can call corpses yard. They were mainly lifeless bodies of our youths, the fathers of tomorrow, who were senselessly mowed down by both the state and non-state actors”.

Archbishop Obinna regretted that with the rate of killings in the state, whether there are going to be fathers in the days ahead; and recalled that only a few hours ago, he got wind of killings by soldiers and the arson that followed at Izombe, Oguta local Government Area of the state.

“What will anybody or group gain, if they kill me? At over 70, I am already heading to my grave. Anybody that kills me now, did not do it early. Also threatened is the Catholic Archbishop of Onitsha, Most Rev. Valarian Okeke. Let’s see how far the planners will go”, he said.

Meanwhile, Management of the Federal Medical Centre, Owerri, will commence mass burial of unclaimed corpses that littered its hospital, this week.

It would be recalled, that the health Institution’s Authority had issued a press release urging the general public whose relatives were missing to visit the hospital’s morgue for possible identification and collection of their bodies.

Speaking exclusively with this reporter, the Public Relations Officer of the Federal Medical Centre, Owerri, Mrs. Jecinta Achonu, said the hospital conducts every year to make way for fresh corpses to be kept in the Mortuary.