The scheduled interment of 13 individuals who lost their lives during a recent assault by alleged armed herdsmen in the Turan community, Jato-Aka, in the Kwande Local Government Area of Benue State, has been delayed due to the absence of a mortician at the facility where the remains were stored.
Relatives of the departed and members of the Concerned Sons and Daughters of Turan Community had previously designated Thursday, March 12, 2026, for a collective burial.
Arrangements were already in progress in the Mbachom community, where mourners and locals congregated in expectation of the memorial service.
Nevertheless, the event was stalled after family members could not retrieve the remains from the mortuary.
A kin of one victim, Bemgba Numve, who spoke with reporters in the area, stated that the situation left grieving families bewildered and exasperated.
“My brother lost his life in the assault, and we intended to inter all 13 today. Individuals gathered from various locations to observe the burial, but we couldn’t obtain the bodies from the morgue,” he remarked.
Numve elaborated that upon arriving at the mortuary, they were told that the mortician responsible for releasing the remains was not present.
“We reached the mortuary only to find that the mortician was absent. We were informed that he had been taken away and there was no one available to release the bodies,” he continued.
He, nonetheless, asserted that the community would still proceed to bury the victims despite this obstacle.
“We hold the right to lay our brothers and sisters to rest. Whoever has taken the mortician will not dictate how we inter them. We will set another date,” he concluded.
Attempts to contact the spokesperson of the Benue State Police Command, DSP Udeme Edet, to verify the occurrence were unsuccessful at the time of submitting this report.
