A local mortuary in Kakata, Margibi County is angry with the Liberia National Police (LNP) for keeping a dead body at its premises for three years, creating serious health hazard not only to operators there, but ordinary residents.The incident involves the body of a notorious Nigerian armed robber, who was reportedly killed in a gun battle with state security on 24 July 2016 while armed robbing a branch of Eco-Bank Liberia Limited in the county.
Credible information received speaks of the arrest, detention, and subsequent trial of three accomplices by the Margibi Circuit Court and subsequently sentenced.
As a result of the situation, the proprietor of the Solomon Tubee Funeral Home in Gbafelia Community Mr. Saturday Tubee laments the government initially owed him US$80,000 but has paid US$20,000, promising to clear the balance and take delivery of the corpse.
He told reporters during Margibi County Sitting recently in Kakata that he had communicated with relevant authorities in the county, including Monrovia about the danger posed by the presence of the body at the funeral home due to its present state.According to him, the funeral home had planned to publicly dispose of the body at the venue of the County Sitting but after interventions by some prominent individuals in the society, the was abandoned.
Saturday adds that he has requested the government to bury the body or provide him a clearance, permitting the funeral home to get rid of the corpse, but government is yet to respond, while the overstayed corpse languishes at the funeral home thereby creating public outcry in Kakata City.
A spokesperson of the community Mr. Kpannah K. Yusufu, threatens that if nothing were urgently done by the government to bury the body, residents would demand the funeral home to dispose of the body to avoid a potential health problem.
Mr. Yusufu says it was unfair and unrealistic for the government to continue to keep the body in the community with a little over 50,000 inhabitants, a situation that seriously worries dwellers who depend on clean and fresh air to survive.He notes the funeral home did extremely well by preserving the body up to present, adding that no funeral home in Liberia could have done in the absence of money. By Emmanuel Mondaye-Editing by Jonathan Browne
