The last is yet to be heard in Orlu as Imo State Government plans mass burial for corpses of patients allegedly abandoned by the IMSUTH Medical Doctors.

This is even as the government according to a panel set up to investigate the Orlu IMSUTH accused the recently sacked CMD of salary Padding amongst others.

In what could be described as a betrayal of their Hippocratic oath, doctors in lmo state university teaching hospital Orlu are alleged to be abandoning hundreds of patients to die.

It was learnt that the mortuary in the tertiary health institution is overwhelming with corpses such the government is planning a mass burial for them.

According to a report of the panel set up by the government to investigate the institution, the patients were left to their fate because they refused to patronize the private clinics owned by the doctors.

The panel’s report indicated that the majority of the doctors use the hospital as their liaison office from where they poach patients to their clinics.

It was gathered that patients who don’t have money to attend the private clinics are abandoned to die with management watching helplessly.

‘ Because of this anomaly, almost 80 percent of patients who go to IMSUTH end up dying. That is why the mortuary is filled to the brim and mass burial is contemplated’, the report indicated.

Angered by the development and monumental fraud in the institution, the government last Wednesday dismissed the chief medical director and also ordered his prosecution.

Among the alleged fraudulent activities of the dismissed CMD include padding of salary from ₦147m paid in December 2019 to ₦236m in January 2020 when a new Governor assumed office.

Also, he awarded himself a monthly salary of₦1.6m contrary to extant laws while he caused to disappear ₦10m monthly IGR.

Imo State commissioner for information and strategy, Chief Declan Emelumba announced to newsmen in Owerri that the government took measures to save the hospital.

He disclosed that the government was also going to punish all staff indicted in the report in addition to erring doctors being dragged to the professional body for appropriate sanction.

He said it was worrisome that doctors who swore to save lives were now engaging in unethical practices including abandoning patients to die in their hundreds.

Meanwhile, Reprieve is on the offing for rape victims in Imo as the government plans to provide free legal services for them to obtain justice and achieve closure.

The state governor, Senator Hope Uzodinma who announced the gesture in Abuja, also promised to ensure that the victims are saved from further trauma through stigmatization by society.

The governor spoke when he received triple awards of excellence from the Federation of West African Freelance Journalist Association and Anti Rape Campaigners.

The awards are: The Governor of the Year 2020: International Anti Rape Ambassador; and Infrastructural Development Governor of the year 2020. The state commissioner for information and strategy, Chief Declan Emelumba received the awards on his behalf.

Senator Uzodinma disclosed that the government will soon forward an executive bill to the state house of Assembly to make it a law to provide free legal services for rape victims.

Regretting that one of the major drawbacks for rape victims in their quest for justice was stigmatization, the governor hoped that the free legal services will encourage them to overcome that fear.

He directed both the Ministry of Justice and the ministry of women affairs to collaborate and come out with feasible strategies that will help rape victims to get justice and their abuses commensurate punishment.

He said it was the desire of his administration to protect women from human predators and gender-based violence, insisting that society must preserve the age-old value of respect for women.

The governor however expressed application to the group for the awards, saying that he was deeply encouraged by the gesture.

According to him, the awards were a manifestation of the appreciation of the job he was doing in Imo since his assumption of office eleven months ago.

Senator Schumer said the awards will motivate him to work harder to the benefit of Imo people and Nigerians generally.