As the controversy over the discovery of twenty mummified bodies in a private facility in Benin City, Edo State capital continues, Governor Godwin Obaseki, has given the Edo State Police Command seven days ultimatum to carry out a comprehensive investigation into the purposes and ownership of the facility.
Obaseki stated this at a joint press conference with the police at the headquarters of the Edo State Police Command on Friday.
Represented by his Special Adviser on Media Projects, Crusoe Osagie, Obaseki, while calling for calm among citizens of the state, said the public would continuously be briefed on the progress of the investigations.
He said: “We want to call for calm from the public; we don’t want to preempt the outcome of police investigation, but as the police is actively doing their investigations, there are a lot of speculations going around; some people suspect that the place is a quack morgue, it could be for ritual purposes, and we are giving that to the police. People have been apprehended and they are undergoing questioning, some people are still being looked for.
“The governor has given seven days for them to come back to us with the details of what they have found out, was it just a morgue or is there any ritual involved? No conclusions have been reached yet, so police will be allowed to do their work.
“We are going to continuously brief the public and we are also taking measures through the Ministry of Health to ensure that there is no public health crisis in that area. Edo is safe and there is no evidence yet that anything ritual is involved until the police are through with their investigations.”
On his part, the Deputy Commissioner of Police in charge of Criminal Investigation Department, Olawore Oluwole who is handling the investigation assured that the police would do a thorough job.
He said: “Based on credible intelligence, a bungalow located at Asoro area and in that bungalow we found some dried bodies and some items like generator, gas cylinder, oxygen cylinder.
“while investigation is in progress, we have arrested five suspects and they are Chimaobi Okoewu and Samuel Okoh both from Ebonyi State, Gideon Sunday from Akwa-Ibom, Victor Obeche from Anambra and Yusuf Lawal from Katsina state. So far, we are still looking for one of the suspects and efforts are being made to get him and his name is Otu Chukwu who is alleged to be the owner of the bungalow and soonest he will be apprehended.
“I want to appeal to members of the public to remain calm as the Command is assuring that everything will be done to ensure that all hidden facts are unraveled.”