From Marcel Duru Owerri
Isa Sanusi the Director of Amnesty International has said that Amnesty is Investigating “horrifying videos” showing hundreds of unidentified bodies being moved from mortuaries in Imo State at night to unknown destinations. Speaking in Owerri, Imo State recently he said that Key locations are Ngor Okpala General Hospital and Mbieri General Hospital, adding that the videos allegedly show movement happening *at night* in “coordinated stages”stressing that majority of bodies are “at skeletal level and in large numbers. Sanusi said that they want Imo State Government Immediate “account for all the bodies, establish their identities and causes of death, and explain when, where and how they came to be in the mortuaries and where they are now being taken, Preserve evidence “all bodies, mortuary records, medical records and other relevant evidence must be preserved to prevent interference with any investigation”He projected that Forensic investigation Ensure bodies are “properly identified and subjected to appropriate forensic examinations, including autopsies where necessary and Independent probe “allegations that some of the deceased may have been victims of unlawful killings during security operations in Imo State must be promptly, independently and impartially investigated”No tampering, “No body or evidence should be concealed, destroyed, disposed of or otherwise interfered with.
Sanusi added that Southeast, especially Imo, has had “years of heavy security presence and clashes involving state security agencies, local security outfits, and non-state armed groups noted that without forensic audits, proper autopsies, and transparent chain-of-custody protocols, evidence of potential human rights violations risks being permanently lost. Meanwhile other groups like AVID – American Military Veterans of Igbo Descent corroborated Amnesty and called it part of a “grim and unbroken pattern of extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, and the systematic disposal of bodies that has plagued Southeast Nigeria since 2015. AVID however demanded that governors of all five Southeast states set up Judicial Commissions of Inquiry because the families of the deceased have a right to know what happened to their loved ones calling on the Imo State Government and FG to account for the bodies and allow an independent investigation.
