Regardless of the gradual ebbing of dreaded Ebola Virus Disease, EVD, in the country, health workers of the morgues where victims of the collapsed Synagogue Church of All Nations, SCOAN, were deposited gave the corpses a wide berth for fear of contracting the viral infection.

The six storey guest belonging to SCOAN collapsed last week Friday killing scores of people mostly South Africans who came into the country seeking healing powers from the controversial pastor of the synagogue, TB Joshua.

Most of the corpses recovered from the debris of the collapsed building and deposited at public mortuaries were already mangled and this gave concern to the medical officers on how to embalm them.

Investigations by our reporter revealed that some of the corpses at the morgues that were put into freezers were not embalmed.

According to a source who spoke on condition of anonymity, “no one has knowledge of the possible ailments these victims suffered before they took them to the Synagogue.

“It is common knowledge that most people who patronise the Synagogue go for healing and deliverance over various ailments, who knows if there carriers of EVD among them.

The corpses are more deadly than when the victim is alive,” stated the source. As recalled, both federal and Lagos state government officials had paid Pastor Joshua a visit at his church at the outbreak of the virus in the country after Patrick Sawyer, the Liberian American, imported the ailment into the country.

The government officials had tried to prevail on the charismatic pastor to shelve his healing convention normally attended by foreigners in droves. Government thinking was to stop further importation of the virus into the country or exporting of the infection to other countries like South Africa.

It is however unclear if the victims of the building collapse were already in the country before the government admonition to Joshua or they came into the country after.

“Though health workers are said to be applying universal precautions in handling the corpses at the mortuaries in the state, it has not be made clear if government would want us to carry out DNA tests on each corpse to enable us identify who they are or not,” further explained the newspaper source.

The informer further added: “It was not clear yet if government would be responsible for footing the bills of embalmment and cost of carrying out the DNA since the victims were lodged at the Synagogue as guests of the church at the time of the disaster.

“Besides, it is also not clear yet if government would foot the bills for embalmment or DNA and what procedures it would follow.”

The Lagos State Government appear to be in dilemma on how medical officers handling the corpses retrieved from the rubbles of the collapsed building would go about conducting the DNA test to identify all the victims who are mostly foreigners.

Saturday Mirror gathered that series of meetings went on in government quarters on the modalities to be used in carrying out the DNA tests on the corpses in accordance with the Coroner’s Systems Law of Lagos State, 2007.

Section 14 of the law stipulates that, “A report of death shall be made to any of the agencies or the office of the Coroner and be subjected to post mortem examination where there is reasonable cause to believe that the cause of death was sudden, unexpected.”

Section 15 further states: “The Coroner shall hold an inquest whenever he is informed that the death of a deceased person lying within the District was a result of death in a violent, unnatural and suspicious situation.” Efforts to get officials in the state Ministry of Health to react to the situation were unsuccessful as at press time.

A visit by our reporter to the Igando General Hospital, a few kilometres away from the church where six survivors of the incident were admitted, showed the survivors being attended to by the nurses on duty.

The parents of a three-year-old girl rescued from the site are yet to be found, as efforts by the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, LASUTH, Ikeja, to track down her relatives has proved abortive.

The Consultant and Head, Surgical Emergency Department of the Hospital, Dr. Ibrahim Mustapha, told our reporter that though the girl is fit to be discharged, she cannot go home as her parents or any guardian is yet to come for her. He also stated that the hospital is yet to get basic information from the little girl, which would have helped social welfare workers at the hospital to trace her parents.

Mustapha added that another victim, a male, who sustained some bruises on the head and arms would be discharged soon. He said, “The two victims of the collapsed building are responding well to treatment and will be discharged soon. “Both sustained minor injuries including bruises, but we have been able to treat and dress their wounds.

“We are hoping that any parent or relative looking for their child will come to LASUTH. For now, she is stable and she is even good to go home, but we can’t discharge her till we have a guardian or her parents and they should come with proof.”