The decision to embark on a mass burial was reached following conversations with pathologists realizing it would take up to six months to identify their remains using standard tests, which the families considered too long to bear.
The wife of the Secretary to the Bayelsa State Government, and 10 other female politicians who perished in a ghastly road accident a few days ago are to be given a mass burial, SaharaReporters has learned.
Mrs. Elizabeth Oguru, wife of Prof. Edmund Alison-Oguru, was returning from a visit to the First Lady, Mrs. Patience Jonathan, when the horrendous accident occurred at Elele on the East-West road.
The female politicians, who were reduced to ashes and unidentifiable remains, were convoyed to the morgue at the Federal Medical Centre in Yenagoa by a team led by the Former Deputy Governor of the State and State Coordinator of the Transformation Ambassadors of Nigeria (TAN), Hon. Werinipre Seibarugu.
The decision to embark on a mass burial was reached following conversations with pathologists realizing it would take up to six months to identify their remains using standard tests, which the families considered too long to bear.
The husband of one of the victims and a member of staff of the State Broadcasting Corporation, Mr. Mathew Utolor, disclosed in pain that the families could not identify their loved ones.
“I could not believe that I could not identify my wife," he said.
Also speaking, Mr. Ambrose Ayebakuro, the 33-year old son of a deceased House of Assembly member, Hon. Ruby Benjamin, confirmed that they had been contacted about the necessity of the mass burial for the victims.
“She was everything to us,” he said of his mother. “But I take solace in the fact that she was close to God.”
Meanwhile, the State Governor, Hon. Seriake Dickson, has visited the home of Prof. Alison-Oguru over the loss of his wife.
The governor described the incident as a painful and terrible blow to the state, adding that the news of the untimely death of the women had come to him as a rude shock.
Also speaking, the Speaker of the House of Assembly, Hon. Konbowei Benson, described death as a heartache that no one can heal, adding that only God has the capacity to console the bereaved.