More dead bodies found in Anambra river

More dead bodies were seen floating on Ezzu River, at the boundary between Anambra and Enugu states, on Monday, less than 24 hours after government officials and the police buried the first set of corpses found floating  on the river on Saturday.

Our correspondent, who visited the scene on Monday, saw the mass grave in which the other corpses were buried at the bank of the river. But a few metres away, two bodies were seen floating on the river.

The Police Public Relations Officer in the state, Mr. Emeka Chukwuemeka, said 18 bodies were recovered from the river and buried. But he would not say if an autopsy was done on the corpses to determine the cause of their death.

Some villagers who spoke to our correspondent, said the bodies – some of them decomposing – were retrieved from the river and buried in the mass grave.

Meanwhile, the Amansea community, in whose river the bodies were dumped, have begun consultations to see how to remedy the situation.

A prominent member of the community and former Member of the Anambra State House of Assembly, Chief Boniface Okonkwo, told our correspondent that the dumping of the dead bodies in their only source of drinking water had brought calamity to the community.

He said most of the older generation depended on the river for their drinking water.

He said, “It’s one of our preferred sources of drinking water. It is the water you drink and it cools your body.”

He said some members of the community, who did not know that the water had been contaminated had fetched and used the water. He said they had been taken to the hospital for treatment.

He urged the state government to expedite action on the promise  that tankers would supply water to the community until the river was cleaned up.

One villager, Obinna Okeke, said since Sunday, it was only one tanker of water that had been supplied to the people. “We haven’t seen the drugs the governor promised,” he added.