Exhumation performed in Nigeria after grave error

By Mansur Abubakar 

A body has been exhumed in Nigeria one week after it was buried following a mix-up at the morgue.

A Christian was buried in a Muslim grave in the northern state of Kano because the two bodies looked similar.

Aminu Adam, the chief Imam of Gandun Albasa community in central Kano, told the BBC he took responsibility for the confusion.

“We were told that Abdullahi Obinwa was number 22 at the mortuary and when I went to identify the corpse, Basil Ejensi looked like Obinwa, who had lived with us for 40 years. They were both chubby and not too tall, but there was no beard," Mr Adam said.

"When I asked the mortuary attendant he said they sometimes remove beards from bodies, so I assumed it was Obinwa.”

The error was discovered when the Ejensi family went to the morgue to organise the funeral and found their relative missing.

After they traced his remains to the Muslim cemetery, they obtained a court order for the body to be exhumed.

It has since been returned to the Ejensi family, but the search is still on for the corpse of Mr Obinwa.

The authorities at the Aminu Kano hospital, where the mix-up took place, told the BBC they were investigating.

This article originally appeared on BBC News