Saturday, November 9, 2024 -A disturbing trend of corpses with missing body parts in Makurdi, the capital of Benue State, has raised alarm among residents, fueling concerns that organ harvesters may be operating in the city.
According to Daily Trust, reports that early this year, a female corpse
was found on a refuse dump around Iorapuu Adai Street at Nyiman Hudco Quarters
of Makurdi metropolis.
The woman, whose identity remains unknown, was wrapped in hotel
bed-sheets, her legs tied and body stuffed into a nylon sack and dumped at the
refuse site. There were claims that several of her organs were removed.
Residents had described the scene as a nightmare turned real, while
other onlookers expressed outrage as they rained curses on the perpetrators of
the act, but none of them could identify the dead young woman. They appealed to
security operatives to unravel the mystery behind the killing.
Shortly after that, another female body was discovered beneath the old
dual railway road bridge with her private parts missing.
SP Catherine Anene, the spokeswoman of the police in Benue confirmed the
incident, while assuring the public that investigations were ongoing.
Weekend Trust reports that the above incidents are just a tip of the
iceberg as more cases have emerged, injecting heightened fear in the state
capital.
A few days ago, a non-governmental organisation known as 24 Hours Road
Accident Victims Support Initiative (TRAVSI) in Benue State, raised the alarm
over the discovery of a new method being used by criminal elements to harvest
body parts from unsuspecting victims.
The founder and chief executive officer of TRAVSI, Gaddafi Asemanya,
raised the alarm during the maiden stakeholders’ town hall meeting in Makurdi,
organised by the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) in the state.
He said the criminal elements were in the habit of using flashy cars to
hit unsuspecting road users who were either walking or riding on motorbikes
along the roads, and under the pretext of conveying the victims to hospitals
for medical attention, would divert them to undisclosed locations, where they
would harvest their body parts and in the end, dump their bodies elsewhere.
Asemanya cited recent cases involving mostly women and saying the
victims were brought into Makurdi from Abuja or conveyed from the road between
Makurdi and Abuja, adding that in some instances, the victims were kidnapped.
Government Area with the blanket of a hotel. Another one was dumped at a
stream in Welfare Quarters, while another young girl whose legs were broken
while her body parts were harvested was also seen in another part of Makurdi.
Her body showed that a vehicle hit her on the leg. The TRAVSI drew the
attention of security agencies to it.
“Another of such case involved one Godwin Obite, who was kidnapped in
Abuja by organ harvesters and brought to Makurdi. We rescued him and he spent
51 days in the Benue State University Teaching Hospital (BSUTH) before he was
discharged.
“He was lucky to have been discarded by his
kidnappers after they sighted a security presence in Makurdi at the eve of the
#endbadgovernance protest, which frightened
them into
abandoning their plan. Initially left to die, Obite spent
nearly 20 days in the hospital before regaining consciousness”.
He added, “During the intervention, TRAVSI secured a court order to
access his account details, then traced his family to Abuja. We were able to
reunite him with his brother, a retired army officer in Abuja, who had raised
him from a young age.”
Apart from Obite, Asemanya explained that victims also included those
offered free ride by the roadside. He expressed worry that victims did not live
to tell their stories, adding that their relatives might still looking for
them.
He also recounted how his team rescued a young woman, who, out of
bravery jumped down from a vehicle after realising that she had been trapped by
suspected organ harvesters.
The TRAVSI team rushed her to a hospital, where she received treatment
before she was safely returned to her home in Yelewata, a rural town in Benue
near the Nasarawa State border, along the Makurdi-Lafia road.
Asemanya said, “She was drugged from Yaman Park in Makurdi by some
persons who put substances in her drink. Luckily, she was a bit conscious at
the time they bundled her into a waiting vehicle, and while in motion, she
gathered strength to jump out of the vehicle after sensing a mischief.
“It was about 2am that I was called for the rescue operation and we took
her to hospital, rehabilitated her after treatment before releasing her to
reunite with her family in Yelewata community.”
The TRAVSI founder called on security agencies to beam their searchlight
on the growing threat in order to save the lives of innocent people across the
country.
Responding, the Assistant Zonal Corps Marshal of the Federal Road Safety
Corps (FRSC), RS4HQ, Yusuf Haruna Mcilt, warned people around accident scenes
to be vigilant and to stop unknown persons from conveying victims to hospital.
Mcilt added that more awareness would be created with the correct
emergency number to call for FRSC intervention wherever or whenever an accident
occurs. He stressed that corps on duty would always take accident victims to
the nearest known or government-owned hospitals rather than unknown medical
centres.
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