Sylvester Oromoni Jr: ‘Dowen College remains closed until justice is served,’ NANS, Ijaw Youth Council insist

National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) and the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) have told the Management of Dowen College, Lekki, in Lagos to ensure the school remains closed until justice is seen to have been done in the case of the late student of the institution, Sylvester Oromoni Jr who died under controversial circumstances last November.

The school had initially claimed that he sustained injuries from playing football. However, the family revealed that the late Sylvester was brutalised by school bullies and a liquid substance was forced down his throat.

An autopsy conducted by the Consultant Pathologist, Dr. Clement Vhriterhire, at the Central Hospital Warri concluded that Sylvester died of ‘acute lung injury due to chemical intoxication in a background of blunt force trauma.’

The student’s corpse was, however, conveyed to Lagos and a fresh autopsy was ordered by the police.

Sylvester’s murder sparked a nationwide outrage forcing the Lagos Government to shut the school indefinitely. The five accused students were also remanded but granted N1m bail each by a court.

In a surprise decision, Wednesday, the Lagos Government absolved all indicted parties in the death of 12-year-old Sylvester Oromoni (Jnr) of blame, as it claimed that the autopsy report did not find any harmful and toxic substance in his body.

The decision by the State Government followed the Legal Advice of the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) Ms. Adetutu Oshinusi, which also cleared the minors of belonging to unlawful society due to insufficient facts to establish the offence.

The legal advice was addressed to the Deputy Commissioner of Police, State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID) and the Magistrate, Olatunbosun Adeola.

It states that the interim and final toxicology reports of post-mortem samples by the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) and the Central Hospital, Warri, Delta State, were in agreement as to the cause of death.

The cause includes septicaemia, lobar pneumonia with acute pyelonephritis, pyomyositis of the right ankle and acute bacterial pneumonia due to severe sepsis.

Septicaemia is when bacteria enter the bloodstream.

Lobar pneumonia, also known as non-segmental pneumonia or focal non-segmental pneumonia, is a form of acute respiratory infection that affects the lungs.

Acute pyelonephritis is a sudden and severe kidney infection.

Pyomyositis is a rare bacterial infection of the skeletal muscle.

Sepsis is a life-threatening complication of an infection and occurs when chemicals released in the bloodstream to fight an infection trigger inflammation throughout the body.

The legal advice added that the result of the toxicology is also not indicative of any toxic or poisonous substance in the body of the deceased as claimed by the family.

“The DPP’s legal advice, therefore, concluded that based on these findings, there is no prima facie case of murder, involuntary manslaughter and or malicious administering of poison with intent to harm against the five students – Favour Benjamin (16), Michael Kashamu (15), Edward Begue (16), Ansel Temile (14) and Kenneth Inyang (15).

“From available facts in the duplicate case file, the investigation carried out by the police did not reveal that any secret society name, tattoo or insignia of any unlawful society was found in the possession of any of the suspects during the investigation.

“To hold otherwise would amount to sniffing for an offence and a speculative act which is not permitted in law.

“It is trite law that suspicion, no matter how grave, cannot be a ground for conviction,” the advice reads.

It would be recalled that Sylvester, a 12-year-old JSS 2 student of the school, died on November 30, 2021.

Consequently, the State Government on Wednesday, directed the Police Command to release all suspects facing trial in the death of Sylvester for murder, on the grounds that the deceased from autopsy report, died from secondary infection to an external injury sustained earlier, as it exonerated them of murder charges initially preferred against them.

The State Police Command had earlier released the housemaster and other Dowen College staffers who were arrested in connection with the student’s death.

However, the decision has not gown well with groups like the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) and National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) who in separate reactions warned against reopening of the Dowen College until ‘justice is served.’

It would be recalled that the Lagos Government had directed the indefinite closure of Dowen College, in Lekki , pending the outcome of an investigation into the harrowing death of a 12-year-old student of the institution, Sylvester Oromoni Jnr.

Lagos Commissioner for Education, Mrs Folasade Adefisayo who announced the closure after a meeting with the School Management and Staff, December 3, however, called for calm, saying no effort would be spared in getting to the root of the incident.

The late Sylvester Oromoni, reportedly died from injuries sustained at the hands of fellow students who allegedly wanted to force him to join their secret cult group.

Reacting to the incident, management of the Dowen College, however, claimed the report of bullying is ‘social media tales,’ as it insisted that the late Sylvester sustained injuries while playing football.

The release of the suspects s ordered by the Lagos Government effectively cleared the way for the reopening of the school for resumption of academic activities.

Members of the IYC who stormed the premises of the Dowen College, Thursday, in protest over the decision by the Lagos Government to free suspects linked to the death of Sylvester, threatened to raise unrest if the school attempted reopening, as it insisted that justice was yet to be served.

Family of late Sylvester is from the Ijaw region of the Delta South Local Government Area of the state.

The IYC condemned the legal advice issued by the Lagos State Director of Public Prosecution, Adetutu Osinusi, clearing staff and students of Dowen College of complicity in the death of the young man.

“We are here today to express our anger and grievances with the fake and corrupt report released by the Lagos State Director of Public Prosecution that this school where cultists are being trained is cleared. They cleared the same people that killed our son without trial, without concluded investigation; they said they cleared this school to open.

“If they open this school, the whole Ijaw nation will come here, let them try it and see, if they open this school on Monday, the whole Ijaw nation will come, we will come with our school bags, feeding bottles and join them here. Let them bring armoured tanks here, we have the capacity.

“If they refuse to give us justice, this school will not be open, we want to send a message to the governor of this state; I believe he is a well-trained person, if he supports injustice, then this school will not have peace.

“Nobody can stop us, when this thing happened, we said okay, we want justice, we folded our hands, this is the first time in the whole world we heard that before an investigation is concluded, before a case got to court, all of a sudden, during holiday, they tried the case in their houses and cleared them.

“Our son cannot die and their children will walk in here, it’s not possible, we want justice, justice is not done served,” said one of the protesters of the IYC, Thursday.

On its part, while also reacting, the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) said an investigative committee set up by its National Chairman, Sunday Asefon, found that Nigerian students were dumbfounded learning that Sylvester Oromoni died of some infections.

Chairman of the committee, Oladimeji Uthman, at a press conference in Abeokuta, said, the NANS investigative committee had obtained the autopsy results of Sylvester Oromoni, saying “the results contradicted allegations that he took a harmful substance and was assaulted before his death.

“The autopsy and toxicology report conducted by the Nigeria Police Force disclosed the cause of his death to be Septicaemia, Lobar Pneumonia with Acute Pyelonephritis, Pyomyositis of the right ankle and Acute Bacterial Pneumonia due to severe Sepsis,” Uthman said.

He informed that the committee had 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 in the autopsy.’

The NANS committee said it was perplexed that the police did not make mention of bullying in their reports, stressing that, “We know that Sylvester was bullied but why are state actors trying not to comment on it? We are dumbfounded hearing that Sylvester Oromoni Jr died of those infections.”

NANS said, therefore that it has requested Dowen College and Sylvester’s family to ‘make public his medical records/history so as to know if there were any ailments he was battling with before his death.’

“Nigerian students are seeking answers and we will not allow injustice to thrive.”

“Powers that-be have been frantically making moves to open the school at all cost, damning the magnitude of the horrible incident,” NANS said.

The students’ body warned the Lagos Government to ensure the college remain closed, threatening to not only tag the State Governor as an enemy of humanity, but to also ‘mobilize all our armless battalion to the streets of Lagos and march in our thousands to seek for adequate justice for slain Sylvester if the school is re-opened anytime soon.’

“We shall continue to seek justice for Sylvester even if heaven must fall,” they added.

Meanwhile, counsel to the Oromoni family, and human rights advocate, Mr Femi Falana said the autopsy report was ‘loaded with medical jargon’ and ‘a very cheap attempt’ at cover-up which failed to address the allegation that the deceased was forced to drink a concoction and tortured for refusing to join an unlawful society.

“In a report of that nature, you have to address each of the allegations and eliminate them one by one. Look at the very dubious way of dismissing whether the boy was forced to join a cult or an unlawful society.

“DPP said they didn’t find any insignia or uniform in the possession of the suspects, hence, there was no unlawful society. Is that how to prove the membership of an unlawful society? They must think they’re dealing with morons.

“Has that addressed the allegation that the boy was forced to drink a concoction or that he was beaten?

“If they found all those diseases [in the autopsy], when did they arise? You said he was injured on a football field.

“What kind of injury? Was there an opening in his body? Wounds can lead to sepsis. How did it lead to his death?

“It’s a very cheap attempt to cover. As far as the parents are concerned, this cannot be the end of the matter.”

Falana, representing the bereaved family in the case, said the family will apply for the DPP to defend the report, adding that the probe is inconclusive.

“The report is escapist but hasn’t resolved the matter. It is pending before the coroner in Lagos. We expect the DPP to give evidence before the coroner. We’re going to apply to summon the DPP on January 15.

“Neither in Warri nor in Lagos is there a lab to confirm poisonous substances [in post-mortem examinations].

“The commissioner of police said on December 31 that they were awaiting the report of a toxicologist. Do they have that report? No. And that is the most important aspect of the investigation. So, the probe is not conclusive.

“This is only the report of the DPP based on the information made available to him. The full facts are not out. We challenge the doctors and the DPP to produce the toxicologist’s report on the substance he was forced to drink.

“Unless you can show that, you haven’t concluded. You can’t just declare that everyone has been exonerated. They just wanted to justify the reopening of the school, which should be announced very soon. That’s all.”

Also, Falana informed, in a statement, Thursday, that an inquest which commenced before the Coroner on December 16, 2021 has now been adjourned to January 15, 2022 for further hearing, Falana noted.

His statement reads: “Our attention has been drawn to the report issued by the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions of Lagos State dated January 4, 2022 which has purportedly cleared five students and five employees of Dowen College of any complicity in the death of the 12-year old Sylvester Oromini Jr.

However, the report has not laid the allegations surrounding the gruesome murder of Sylvester Oromoni to rest. The report is escapist and hasty as the Authorities are aware of the fact that the Chief Coroner of Lagos State has ordered that an inquest be conducted into the circumstances surrounding the unnatural death of Sylvester Oromoni.

The inquest which commenced before the Coroner on December 16, 2021 has been adjourned to January 15, 2022 for further hearing.”

Meanwhile, in a development, Chief Coroner of Lagos State, Justice M. A. Dada, has confirmed that the inquest will openly commence on January 15 at Magistrate Court No. 4, Epe District.

In a letter dated January 4, to the lawyers to the family of the deceased students, Femi Falana (SAN), the Coroner of Epe District, Mikail Kadiri, asked the lawyer to forward a list of suspects to be summoned to court.

The letter was titled, ‘Re: Request for Inquest into the tragic death of Sylvester Oromoni killed at Dowen College, Lekki. Lagos State.’

It read, “I have the directive of the Chief Coroner of Lagos State, Honourable Justice M. A. Dada to remind you that the inquest into the death of Sylvester Oromoni will commence on Saturday, 15th January, 2022 at Magistrate Court No. 4, Epe District, Combined High Court and Magistrate Court of Lagos State, Epe at 9:00am prompt; the hearing shall be in open Court.

“You are further reminded to file and serve depositions of all witnesses you intend to call at the inquest and forward a list of persons whom, in your opinion, needs to be summoned by the Court. The depositions may be filed at any of the Magisterial Districts in Lagos State and served electronically on all parties concerned. Please find attached the name, firm/representation and phone numbers of parties that attended the preliminary meeting held on the 16th December, 2021. Thank you.”