70-year-old Amos Otene had already spent 30 hours in a mortuary, after being pronounced lifeless at 4.30 am on August 26th, only to rise up from the dead.

Just to be sure they didn’t make a mistake pronouncing him dead, the doctors had even extracted the requisite body fluid and other substances from the corpse, for post mortem examination which was to ultimately reveal the cause of death.

According to the family, the hospital admitted Otene on Friday August 25 after he complained of severe toothache which had persisted for several days before he was pronounced dead.

By Sunday, one of his children, Eche, who lives in Lafia visited, and was taken to the mortuary as he wanted to confirm that his father had indeed passed on.

According to Eche, at about 1.39 pm, “the morticians at the hospital wheeled out the trolley containing my father and unveiled the face for me to see. It was in this process that the supposedly he started raising his right hand and all of us fled towards the reception area of the mortuary. From a safe distance we watched as my father lifted himself and sat on the bed and that was about seven minutes later. One of the attendants eventually summoned enough courage and approached my father who fell back on the trolley.”

Eche said that the doctors ordered that the resurrected man be readmitted in the ward where some medication was administered and he was placed on fresh round of drips.

He remained in the ward till Tuesday when the doctors carried out series of tests and certified Otene fit for discharge.

Otene talked about what could be described as his near death experience, saying, “what I remember is that I was in a vehicle and traveled a long distance.

“When I got there, there were many people and there was a lot of celebration and merriment and the people were happy. But they did not allow me to stay with them. They said I should go back and repeat my work.

I am much better now and I thank God for everything and I also owe many thanks to the hospital for taking care of me and my family members who have been worried. I hope they will continue to be with me until I am completely free from this stress.”

Ada Igboanugo