Police accuse mortuaries of impeding investigations

Aflao, Oct 8, GNA - The police in Aflao have expressed frustration at the refusal of mortuaries in Keta, Akatsi, Ketu-North and Ketu South district to accept corpses of people who died under suspicious circumstances.

"As they reject bodies from us on the grounds of 'no space' other bodies are accepted right before us," a source close to the police told the Ghana News Agency. The source said the alleged lack of co-operation from the mortuaries tended to delay and frustrate police investigations and add to the cost of such investigations. The source appealed to managements of mortuaries to consider the public interest in such situations. The source also appealed to traditional authorities to waive grave charges when the police decide to bury unidentified bodies. Mr Dornne Ahiamadzi, the attendant in charge of the Ketu-South District Hospital morgue, denied that there was any policy to deny police access to mortuaries. He conceded that mortuaries might in certain cases refuse such bodies for good reasons.

Mr Ahiamadzi said it often took the police a very long time to come for such bodies.

He said in one particular case, five bodies kept in a particular cabin reserved for the police were left there for a year until pressure was put on the Police to come for them. He said the mortuaries would not accept bodies that were decomposing at the time they were brought to avoid contamination of other bodies because this could affect the outcome of autopsy reports.