By Labaran Kenneth
365Daily – Renowned Senior Advocate of Nigeria [SAN], Femi Falana, has accused the Lagos Police Commissioner, Hakeem Odumosu, of a massive cover-up in the investigation into the death of a Dowen College student, Sylvester Oromoni (Jnr).
Speaking while appearing on Channels TV, he disagreed with the police report whose findings declared that Sylvester died a natural death. He further stated that the parents have asked for another autopsy which has not been availed to them.
Insisting that the autopsy report mentioned by the Commissioner of Police on the deceased child’s corpse made no mention of natural causes, he said: “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 as lawyers of the deceased, they have also applied for certified true copies which are yet to be made available.
He also faulted the perimeter used by the police to conclude that Sylvester was not forcefully coerced to join a cult as alleged.
“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 queried.