Two years after he died the body of former Nigerian Senate president, Joseph Wayas is stuck in a London morgue and family members are now looking for £60,478, (about N122.6m) to bring the corpse home for burial.
Wayas born in May 1941 was Senate president between 1979-1983. He died after a long battle with illness November 30, 2021 in a london hospital. But due to a family dispute after about N200m was release for his burial by former Cross River govenor Ben Ayade, his corpse could not be repetriated home for funeral.
Besides, according to a report by the Joe Wayas’ Burial Fact Finding Committee headed by Justice Maurice Odey Eneji dated February, 27 2024, the morgue operators insisted on collecting £6,710 (about N13m) being maintenance cost of the corpse and general charges for over two years, before the corpse can be seen by family members.
The committee, had mandated the late Senator’s daughter, Ms Donna Wayas resident in the UK and one other relative to find out the condition of the corpse.
“In line with burial committee’s agreement with Ms Donna Wayas, we need to raise and remit/transfer to Donna the sum of £60,478 to offset all outstanding indebtedness, inclusive of cost of repatriation of the corpse to Nigeria for burial,” said the committee’s report.
“We also need to raise and refund the sum of £7,210 paid on our behalf to the morgue managers in London.”
The report added that:
“Both the state and federal governments may have committed funds for this purpose in the past but he (late Wayas) has not yet been buried.
“He is not in any way responsible for the circumstances leading to the delay of his burial, neither does the delay detract from what he was in, and for, Nigeria.
“I think that now that the complexities surrounding his death and burial have been unravelled, our statesman is entitled to, and should be given, the burial that befits his status by both the federal and state governments.”
