Family, NCDC Tussle over Corpse of COVID-19 Patient in Lagos

Ololade Adeyanju/

The family of a deceased COVID-19 patient and officials of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) are reportedly locked in a struggle over the custody of the body in Ajah area of Lagos.

An eyewitness shared the details of the incident on Twitter via @Nerdy_Dopey.

According to him, the man, whose sample was taken for a test that turned out positive, had already died by the time NCDC officials came to evacuate him to the isolation this evening.

His family however refused to hand over the body to the officials, insisting on burying it by themselves.

The tweets by the eyewitness read, “So members of the @NCDCgov are currently at Badore, Ajah to transfer a #COVID19 patient to an isolation center but they were too late. The man had already died. Now the real case began, custodianship of his body.

“The man’s family & area boys are LITERALLY dragging the man’s body. They want to bury their dead & @NCDCgov want to take possession of his body so they handle it rightly.

“It’s still ongoing right now around the Jetty area roundabout at Badore.

“While the members of the @NCDCgov had their PPE on, the crowd were in no way protected and they were dragging the dead body like it was a game of thug of war.🤦🏽‍♂️

“The number of infected people with #COVID19 is about to triple at Badore, Ajah.

“His family and all the people around that place should be quarantined.”

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