Lagos State Chief Coroner, Justice Mojisola Dada, has fixed January 15, 2022, for the commencement of inquest into the cause of death of Sylvester Oromoni, a 12-year-old student of Dowen College, Lekki, Lagos.
In a letter dated January 4, 2022, and addressed to the law firm of Falana and Falana, the legal practitioners to the Oromoni family, the coroner said that the inquest will be conducted by 9:00 a.m prompt and the hearing shall be in open court.
Magistrate Kadiri also reminded the lawyers to file and serve depositions of all witnesses they intend to call at the inquest.
They are also to forward to the coroner a list of persons whom in their opinion need to be summoned by the court.
The depositions may be filed at any of the magisterial districts in Lagos and served electronically on all parties concerned.
On December 6, 2020, the law firm of Falana and Falana had written to the Chief Coroner of Lagos, Justice Mojisola Dada, to demand the inquest. In response to the demand, Justice Dada had assigned the inquest to Magistrate Kadiri who had written to the law firm on December 7, 2021, and also gone ahead to fix a preliminary meeting for December 15, 2021.
Magistrate Kadiri will sit at the Magistrate Court No. 4, Chambers of the Coroner, Epe District, Combined High Court, and Magistrate Court of Lagos State, Epe.
Meanwhile, the Investigative Committee set up by the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) has asked the parents of late Sylvester Oromoni Jnr and Dowen College to make the medical records of the 12-year-old public.
It said the records will help to ascertain Oromoni’s health status before the incident at Dowen College happened.
The committee in a statement signed by its chairman, Oladimeji Uthman, also called on the Lagos State government to reject all entreaties to reopen the college, warning that reopening the college before the conclusion of investigations can only be done by an “enemy of humanity”.
The student body also threatened to embark on a state wide protest, should the government reopen the school anytime soon, pending the clarification of all doubts.
Uthman said the committee is in receipt of the autopsy report conducted by the police, which showed that Oromoni Jnr died of septicaemia, lobar pneumonia with acute pyelonephritis, pyomyositis of the right ankle and acute bacterial pneumonia due to severe sepsis.
He said the committee wonder why the police has kept the allegations of bullying out of its reports so far and why everyone kept mute on the allegations.
He added that the committee has “contacted a medical expert to make clarifications on how possible knee injury (as claimed by the Dowen College management initially) could develop to those infections mentioned by the police to be the cause of Late Sylvester Oromoni Jnr death.”
The statement further read in part: “We are dumbfounded, hearing that Sylvester Oromoni Jnr died of those infections. This is the reason we are requesting from the management of Dowen College and Sylvester’s family to release and make public his medical records/history in order to shed more light on this case and also to know if there are any ailments he was treating before his death.
“On our part, we will continue to interface with the family, submit the autopsy report for scrutiny (to our medical experts) and make our position known.
