Chijoku Ihunwo made multiple payments for preservation, only to discover his late wife's body had vanished when he came to prepare for her funeral
Fifty-six-year-old Chijoku Ihunwo has one simple request: he wants his wife's body back so he can bury her. But eight months after her death, that request remains painfully unfulfilled—and the path to justice appears blocked at every turn.
Ihunwo's wife, a 50-year-old woman whose name he prefers to keep private, died on May 6, 2025. What should have been a period of grieving and burial preparations has instead become a nightmare of frustration, suspicion, and alleged police corruption after her corpse disappeared from a mortuary in Omagwa, Ikwerre Local Government Area, just weeks before her scheduled interment.
'I Was Paying in Instalments'
A devoted husband who shared a close bond with his late wife, Ihunwo deposited her body at Pamax Hospital Mortuary on the day she died. He paid ₦50,000 of the ₦70,000 embalming fee that day, beginning what would become a pattern of instalment payments as he struggled to gather funds for a proper burial.
"My wife and I were very close while she was alive. So, each time I went to the mortuary, my relatives noticed that I was always crying," Ihunwo recounted. "I was later told not to go to the mortuary again. I started sending my children to the place."
On June 6, he made another payment of ₦25,000. His children visited monthly and saw their mother's body as late as August. In September, they didn't go. When they returned on October 8, they were told the body was "being treated." They paid another ₦30,000 that day.
The Discovery
By November, the family had fixed a burial date: December 13, 2025. Ihunwo sent his children and relatives to the mortuary to settle the outstanding balance and make final arrangements.
"When they got to the mortuary, they called me to say that my wife's corpse was nowhere to be found," he said. "I was shocked, but I asked them if they were joking. They said they were not joking. My children entered the mortuary again and checked; they called me again to say that they did not see my wife's body."
Ihunwo rushed to the facility and confronted the owner, demanding to see his wife's body. She took the mortician and went inside. Within minutes, the mortician bolted out the back door, scaled the fence, and disappeared. He has not been seen since.
Suspicions of Organ Trafficking
The mortician's flight confirmed Ihunwo's worst fears. "When the mortician ran away, I suspected that something was wrong," he said. "I suspected that they might have used my wife's body for business. I suspected that maybe the mortician and the owner of the mortuary sold my wife's body."
He is not alone in his suspicions. The case draws disturbing parallels to an incident in Ngor Okpalla Local Government Area of Imo State, where authorities uncovered a syndicate trading human body parts and subsequently seized the mortuary owner's property.
Police Demand ₦200,000 from Victim
The matter was reported to the Omagwa Police Station and later transferred to the State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID) in Port Harcourt. But instead of relief, Ihunwo encountered another obstacle.
"They were asking me to bring money, which they would use to find the corpse," he alleged. "But I told them that I don't have money. When they insisted, I told them to go and ask the woman (owner of the mortuary) to give them money."
Last Friday, police officers contacted him again. The conversation took a surreal turn.
"They told me that I should take the mortician to court. But I said I did not arrest the mortician; the person arrested was the owner of the mortuary where I deposited my wife's body. I told them I never had any problem with the mortician; my problem is with the owner of the mortuary."
According to Ihunwo, the officers then made a demand: bring ₦200,000. When he refused, they informed him that the maximum sentence the mortician could face if prosecuted was two years—and that they had "removed the woman from the matter."
"I began to wonder if they collected money from the woman who owns the mortuary," Ihunwo said.
'They Should Sit Up and Do Their Work'
Throughout the ordeal, Ihunwo has held onto receipts documenting every payment he made to the mortuary. He has receipts. What he doesn't have is his wife's body.
He has postponed a planned protest and continues to grapple with the emotional and financial toll of raising four children—three graduates and one undergraduate—alone. His wife had been his partner in parenting; now the burden falls entirely on him.
"I don't have anybody to help me in this matter," he said. "I work in a Chinese company. I have worked there for many years, but it was only my wife who helped me train the children while she was alive."
His message to the Nigeria Police Force is simple and desperate: "They should sit up and do their work. I think the woman must have paid the police; I think so. If the woman has not paid them, they should not have told me that if I take them to court, it is only two years they will serve."
A Plea for Intervention
Ihunwo is now appealing to the Rivers State Government to intervene, hoping for the kind of decisive action taken by Imo State authorities in a similar case.
"If you remember what happened in Imo State, precisely in Ngor Okpalla LGA, the state government seized the man's mortuary and even his house because of the sale of human parts in the mortuary," he noted. "But in my case, a full human being went missing in the mortuary. That is why I am blaming the police. A corpse went missing in the mortuary, but up till today, the body is nowhere to be found, and the mortuary still exists."
For now, Ihunwo continues to wait—and to wonder. Somewhere, somehow, he believes his wife's body is being traded, used, or discarded. And until someone in authority decides to act, that is where it will remain.
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