Imo State Government, in conjunction with the State Police Command, has demolished Jessy Best Hotel and Ugwudi Cottage Hospital mortuary services, all situated on the Owerri-Aba Road in the Ngor Okpala local government area.

Also demolished were two expensive houses, a bungalow, and a duplex with large compounds and a smaller apartment in Ngor Community in the Council area, which was said to be a shrine where fetish articles were discovered and burnt by the enforcement teams.

Unclaimed corpses were evacuated from the mortuary to another body preservation centre before the demolition.

Speaking to journalists at the scene before the commencement of the demolition exercise, the State Commissioner of Police, Aboki Danjuma, disclosed that the order to demolish the properties was issued by the State Governor, Hope Uzodinma.

The CP said that the owner of the properties, Stanley Oparaugo, popularly known as Morocco, has been declared wanted by his command, following his refusal to honour several police invitations.

The Police Chief disclosed that credible intelligence gathered revealed that the properties were a haven for alleged criminal infractions.

Danjuma stated that the demolished mortuary was suspected to be a spot for organ harvesting activities as most of the bodies were mutilated.

The CP added that “the suspect can only run but can’t hide for too long as the long arm of the law would catch up with him”.

Danjuma reiterated that under his watch, users of the Owerri-Aba Expressway would continue to witness safe trips, even as he urged members of the public to provide his Command with useful information that would lead to the arrest and prosecution of the fleeing suspect.

In the same vein, Commissioner for Health in the State, Chioma Egu, said that the essence of the demolition of the mortuary as directed by the Governor was to prevent further health and security crises in the State.

Egu said that apart from the fact that the facility was not registered and licensed to operate, the discoveries made by her ministry showed that most vital organs from the deposited corpses were missing.

She revealed that going forward, her ministry would commission a task force team that would clamp down on preservative centres that do not meet the standard requirements of operation.

Lending her voice, the Chairman of the Local Council, Chika Ibekwe, said that the people of the area were grateful to the State Governor for being courageous in fighting insecurity in the LGA.

She promised that under her watch, the LGA would continue to be a safe environment for residents and visitors.

The Special Adviser to the Governor on Monitoring and Compliance, Chinasa Nwaneri, and his team were also on the ground during the demolition exercise.