12/12/2025
JUST IN: Imo govt, police demolish hotel, mortuary, houses owned by suspected or .gan harvester
The Imo state government in conjunction with the state police command on Thursday destroyed Jessy Best Hotel and Ugwudi Cottage Hospital mortuary services all situated on the Owerri - Aba Road in the Ngor Okpala Local Government Area of the state.
Also demolished were two expensive houses, a bungalow and duplex with large compounds and a smaller apartment in the Ngor community in the Ngor Okpala LGA said to be a shrine where fe**sh articles were discovered and burnt by the enforcement teams.
Unclaimed corpses were evacuated from the mortuary to another body preservation centre before it was demolished by the state government.
Speaking to Journalists at scene before the commencement of the demolition exercise, the state Commissioner of Police, Aboki Danjuma, disclosed that the order to demolish the properties was issued by the state governor, Hope Uzodimma.
The CP said that the owner of the properties, Stanley Oparaugo, popularly known as Morocco, has been declared wanted by his command, following his refusal to honor several police invitations.
The police chef disclosed that credible intelligence gathered revealed that the properties were haven for alleged criminal infractions.
Danjuma, enthused that the demolished mortuary was suspected to be a scene for or .gan harvesting activities as most of the bodies were mutilated.
The CP said that the suspect, Oparaugo, can only run but can't hide for too long as the long arm of the law would catch up with him.
Danjuma said that under his watch, users of the Owerri - Aba expressway would continue to witness safe trips even as he urged members of the public to provide his command useful information that would lead to the arrest and prosecution of the fleeing suspect.
The Commissioner for Health in the state, Chioma Egu, said that the essence of the demolition of the mortuary as directed by the governor was to prevent further health and security crisis in the state.
Egu said that apart from that the facility was not registered and licensed to operate, the discoveries made by her ministry showed that most vital or .gans from the deposited corpses were missing.
She revealed that going forward, her ministry would commission a taskforce team that would clamp down on preservative centres that do not meet up with the standard requirements of operation.
Also speaking, the chairman of Ngor Okpala LGA, Chika Ibekwe, said that the people of the area were grateful to the state governor for being courageous in fighting insecurity in the LGA.
She promised that under her watch, Ngor Okpala LGA would continue to be a safe environment for residents and visitors.
Ibekwe, asserted that the discoveries made by the security operatives showed that the demolished properties were not supposed to be allowed to continue to function.
She expressed optimism that with the complete overhauling of the security architecture of the LGA, the training and empowering of over 400 Forest Guard operatives, Ngor Okpala LGA would witness maximum peace, going forward.
The special Adviser to the state governor on Monitoring and Compliance, Chinasa Nwaneri, and his team were on ground during the demolition spree.
- Mr Saint
