by Marie-Therese Nanlong

Jos — The mass burial for the remaining corpses at the Jos University Teaching Hospital, JUTH scheduled to hold, yesterday, was cancelled at the last minute, following the identification of 14 out of the 22 to be buried, with the remaining seven still identifiable.

The first batch of the mass burial which was secretly carried out last Friday evening drew the ire of the Igbo in Jos, who said they were not asked to come forward and identify their brothers and sisters who had been missing since the twin bomb blasts which led to the death of about 118 people, last Tuesday.

The Eze Igbo II of Jos, Prof. Joseph Obilom, who made this known said that mass burial was a taboo in Igbo land, just as he said that it was against the culture of the people to buried outside their ancestral homes.

Spokesman of the Emergency Management Agency, SEMA, Mr. Alhassan Barde confirmed the cancellation, saying, “there is no need as 14 of the bodies have been picked while the remaining seven are still identifiable and their relatives may come any time soon.”

The Permanent Secretary of the State Ministry of Health, Dr. Elias Pede relayed the information about the cancellation to anxious relatives of the victims saying, they should come and identify the corpses as “they are not so bad…The issue of mass burial is no longer there.”