The Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Hakeem Odumosu, has said that the two autopsies carried out on 11-year-old Dowen college student, Sylvester Oromoni, did not show that he was murdered.
” We are not at the peak yet. But we have done our investigation and have sent the report to the Directorate of Public Prosecution, DPP for legal advise on those arrested and DPP has replied. We have gone through the medical aspect which is the post mortem.
Post mortem was carried out in Delta and Lagos states. The first one done in Delta State was only witnessed by parents of the deceased.
But after I held a meeting with the parties concerned, at the instance and directive of Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu and my Inspector- General of Police, IGP Alkali Usman Baba, the second post mortem was carried out in Lagos.
The corpse was brought from Delta State to Lagos, where the Post mortem was carried out with all the parties involved , that is : parents of the deceased, parents of the students accused, the school authority and government. These were the four parties that witnessed the post mortem. And the result is out.
The report of the Post Mortem did not bring out the issue of murder on anybody.
Besides the result of the autopsy, the court order that we got has elapsed and we have released the house master and others on bail, because there was nothing that indicted them of murder.
It is only a murder case that is not bailable. Every other offences are bailable. They have been in custody for more than twenty days and that is infringing on their fundamental human rights. Since medical and legal reports have not indicted them so far, I think there is need to allow them have their freedom because bail is not the end of the case.
Another forensic test known as toxicology , will be carried out on the corpse.
By the way, the Toxicology test is to determine the concoction that was allegedly forced into the deceased mouth which peeled his lips.
Toxicology test was being done in Nigeria before, precisely at the Lagos State medical facility in Lagos Island. But after the EndASRS crisis, it is conducted outside the country.
Until that one is effectively done, we won’t know the final report. But with the interim report, nothing showed murder”Odumosu said
Recall that the deceased, who was a Junior Secondary School 2 student of Dowen College and a boarder, was rushed to his parent’s home in Warri, Delta State two months ago, owing to some injuries he sustained after he was allegedly attacked by some of his seniors. The school however dismissed the claim. According to them, he was injured during a football match. He died on November 30.
The police began an investigation into the incident. Five of the students whose names Sylvester allegedly mentioned before passing were arrested alongside three housemasters. They have however, been released on bail.
