Fatai Adejumo, an environmental health officer attached to the Ife Central Local Government Area of Osun State, on Thursday, narrated how the council’s attention was drawn to Timothy Adegoke’s body which was left to decay on Ife/Ede Road.
According to reports, Adejumo, who said the Divisional Police Officer of the More Police Divisional Headquarters, called him on November 8, 2021, to inform him of the presence of a corpse on the road, stated that the council officials did not proceed to the scene until the following day when approval was given by the management for its burial.
Led in evidence by M. Omosun, the prosecution counsel, Adejumo explained that the corpse was in a complete state of decay, which made it difficult for those involved in the burial to touch it.
As a result, he said they decided to dig a grave at the spot where the corpse was found close to the setback of the Ife/Ede Road, where it was buried, adding that the surroundings were fumigated before and after the burial.
Adejumo stated, “On November 8, 2021, I got a call from the DPO of More Division, who told me about a dead pauper lying along Ede Road, Ile Ife. I asked him if he had told the Chairman of Ife Central (Local Government Council), Elugbaju Olayera, and he said yes. I told him to allow me to speak with the chairman.
“Throughout that day, I could not see the chairman. On November 9, I called the chairman in the morning to ask if the DPO had called him and he said the DPO had informed him. When I got to the office that day, the DPO had dropped a memo in respect of the removal of a dead pauper.
“The letter was addressed to the chairman, while the Police Area Commander, Ife, was copied. The letter underwent due process at the local government. About eight officers worked on the letter before it was approved. The approval was given to me by the management of the Ife Central Local Government Council to remove and bury the pauper. A sum of N20,000 was approved by the LGA to pay the casual labourers hired for the burial.
“After I got the approval, I proceeded to the scene that the DPO described for us. When we got there, we took photographs of how we buried the pauper. Then we discovered that the corpse was in a complete state of decay.”
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