* Falana takes brief, seeks Coroner’s Inquest
The Police in Lagos have arrested five more persons at Dowen College in connection with the death of 12 year-old student, Sylvester Oromoni.
Five of those arrested are students, possibly those mentioned by Oromoni during his last moments. The rest are dormitory masters. Three students were arrested earlier.
Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Hakeem Odumosu, said the students whose names were mentioned are in police custody and being quizzed.
The students in custody are Michael Kashamu, Anslem Temile, Benjamin Favour, Edward Brown and Agboro Emmanuel.
“Equally too, I have gotten in touch with my colleague in Delta State,” he said.
“Yesterday (Monday), I spoke with the mother of the deceased. I got them invited, so once they come now, we will be able to get the full facts of the case.
“The school has told us their own version of the case and the parents too, we will get their own version of the story.”
“Nobody is above the law”, he said, adding that the police would carry out its work in line with the juvenile laws.
Odumosu said four groups were involved in the case – the families of the children that are alleged, the school’s authorities, the deceased’s family, and the government.
According to him, the four groups would come together to do and witness the post-mortem that will be conducted on Sylvester’s corpse in order to achieve an objective result.
Sylvester Oromoni died last week from the injuries sustained during an alleged assault by five of his seniors.
According to a witness report by Oromoni’s room mate, the seniors accused Sylvester of snitching on them.
Following public outcry, government and the police moved into the case.
The Lagos government shut the school, while the police began an investigation.
Meanwhile, the Oromoni family has hire the services of rights lawyer, Mr. Femi Falana, as they seek justice over the killing of their son at Dowen College, allegedly through bullying.
And promptly, Falana has caused “a request to be made to the chief coroner in the state, demanding an inquest and recommendations.”
The documents show that the request dated December 6, was also received in the Chief Coroner’s office at 11:20 am of same day.
“We have been briefed by the family of the late Sylvester Oromoni, a student of Dowen College, Lekki, Lagos, who died from injuries he allegedly sustained from the beating by his colleagues that wanted him to join their secret cult group.
“Given the needless death of Sylvester Oromoni, we are compelled to request you to use your good offices to cause a coroner’s inquest to be conducted into the cause of death of this young and promising boy and make appropriate recommendations pursuant to Section 15 of the Lagos State Coroner’s Law 2007, which provides that an inquest shall hold whenever a coroner is informed that the death of a deceased person within his Coroner District is as a result of a death in a violent, unnatural or suspicious situation.
“We, hereby, request Your Lordship to conduct an inquest into the circumstances surrounding this tragic death at Dowen College, Lekki, Lagos State, and we are confident that Your Lordship will accede to our request with utmost urgency.”
