Dr. Banji Ajaka, the state Commissioner for Health, said this in a statement made on Wednesday.
According to Ajaka, as of Tuesday midnight, the state government’s records revealed that 127 people were affected by the attack, with 40 confirmed dead.
Ajaka, in the statement, said, “The situation report as of 12midnight on Tuesday, June 7, 2022, is that at St. Louis Hospital, Owo, 39 people were involved and 13 deaths.
“At the Federal Medical Centre, Owo, the total number of persons involved is 84 and number of corpses in FMC mortuary is 25; 17 females and eight males.”
He also said two deaths were recorded from two private hospitals in the state.
However, Mr. Rotimi Akeredolu, the state governor, has informed the Catholic Church that the state government will provide land in a decent environment for the victims’ mass burial.
Akeredolu made the guarantee while hosting a delegation of Catholic bishops from the South-West led by Archbishop Leke Abegunrin at his home in Owo.
The governor, who also confirmed the increased death toll, stated that the new result came from the tracking of information from multiple hospitals.
He said, “We will have a Memorial Park here where those who died in the attack will be buried.
“We will find a good place as a Memorial Park. It will also be my suggestion that even if there are people who have retrieved their family or members of their family, we must still have a symbolic grave there for them. And it will be there forever, it is not something we can forget and we should never forget it.”
The Ohanaeze Ndigbo in Owo Local Government Area claimed it has started preparing to transport the bodies of its members murdered in the attack to the South-East for burial.
The chairman of the group in the local government, Mr. Anayo Okorie, said they have started meetings to discuss how to convey the bodies to their various states.
He said, “We are here to discuss the way forward for those that died. We cannot give you the actual figures of the Igbos that died because they were many.
“We are planning on how to take the bodies back home. It affected everybody, that is why you see shops still closed.”
