Human rights lawyer and a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Femi Falana, has alleged a massive coverup concerning the death of Dowen College student, Sylvester Oromoni (Jnr).
Falana said this on Monday on Channels TV, while reacting to the recent statement by Lagos Police Commissioner, Hakeem Odumosu, that Sylvester died a natural death.
Falana, who is the counsel to the Oromoni family, described Odumosu’s comment as a mockery of Sylvester’s death , insisting that the autopsy had no mention of natural
“You can’t go on air and be making a mockery of the death of a human being. As you are well aware, by our culture, if you lose a loved one, to break the news, sometimes the school authorities would engage the services of imams or pastors to meet the parents and break the news. That means you are being compassionate and considerate and humane.
“You don’t tell members of the public ‘Oh the boy they claimed was poisoned, he died naturally”. What do you mean by natural causes? Cancer? Heart attack? There is no mention of natural in the report.
“The police commissioner can’t say that Sylvester died of natural causes because what are natural causes? Heart attack, stroke, cancer and so on and so forth.
“But if a boy took ill, you claim he was injured on the football pitch but the boy before his death told the parents ‘I was given to drink a concoction by those who wanted to force me to join a secret society on campus”’
“Doctors would be expected to eliminate these allegations and the first report concluded and stated very clearly that Sylvester died of acute lung injury due to chemical intoxication.
“A doctor would not write such a report if he has not seen anything. No doctor in the world, unless you want to play with your license, would state categorically the cause of death that can be questioned.”
Falana added that the parents request for the second autopsy report has not been made available.
He noted that as lawyers of the deceased, they have also applied for certified true copies which are yet to be made available.
“We are going to establish evidence of a massive cover-up. You say there wasn’t evidence that there was a secret society.
“How? We searched the suspect and didn’t find any tattoo, we did not find any insignia. Is that how to prove evidence of a secret society?” Falana concluded.
