The family of late Sylvester Oromoni has alleged that investigation into his death is being sabotaged, IgbereTV reports
Oromoni, a student of Dowen College in Lagos, passed away in November 2021 after allegedly being tortured and beat up by five of his classmates.
His father had alleged that he had been assaulted and given a drug.
The child sustained injuries while playing football with his buddies, according to Dowen College, who rejected this claim
Oromoni was first diagnosed with “acute lung injury owing to chemical poisoning” in the first autopsy, but this diagnosis was later disproven in favor of the defense that only the bereaved person’s family was present when the autopsy was performed.
The results of a second autopsy performed at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH) supported the department of public prosecution’s (DPP’s) conclusion that Oromoni died “naturally” following an investigation by the Lagos police.
The case has been the subject of a coroner’s investigation, and the bereaved have vowed to take it all the way to the Supreme Court.
The deceased’s father, Sylvester Oromoni (Snr), who released a statement on Sunday in Warri, accused Bernard Onigah, a representative of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) of “causing confusion at every session.”
Oromoni (Snr.) urged the NBA to withdraw Onigah from the sitting to allow the coroner to carry out its duties.
He said the family would not relent on its quest for justice “even if it’s going to take another three decades”.
“Some party in the case have resulted to using Bernard Onigah to buy time by causing confusion and unnecessary set back at every [one] of its sittings, in order to delay its report and thereby frustrating the family,” Oromoni said.
“We hereby urge the leadership of the NBA to immediately withdraw its representative, Bernard Onigah, from the coroner, in order to assist in making the court draw conclusions based on findings.
“I wish to state categorically that the failure of NBA leadership to withdraw Bernard Onigah from the panel after this passionate appeal would be interpreted as complicity on the part of its leadership.
NBA representatives were supposed to play an observer role in the inquest proceedings but the said Bernard Onigah has assumed the role of a defence counsel in the case by raising issues that tend to frustrate proceedings,” he lamented
