The Lagos State Government has cleared five students and five employees of Dowen College accused of complicity in the death of 12-year-old Sylvester Oromoni.
The government said it cleared the students and staff because the autopsy report ruled out the murder cases while the toxicology report found no harmful substance in Oromoni’s body.
The state cleared the suspects as well as the school following the Legal Advice of the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP), issued by Ms Adetutu Oshinusi.
According to the legal advice addressed to the Deputy Commissioner of Police, State Criminal Investigation Department, (SCID) and the trial magistrate, Magistrate Olatunbosun Adeola, the interim and final autopsy reports issued by the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital and toxicology report of postmortem samples and that of the Central Hospital, Warri, were in agreement as to the cause of death namely: Septicaemia, Lobar Pneumonia with Acute Pyelonephritis, Pyomyositis of the right ankle and Acute Bacteria Pneumonia due to severe Sepsis.
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 the 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 aged 16, Micheal Kashamu,15, Edward Begue,16, Ansel Temile,14, and Kenneth Inyang,15”.
The state also cleared the minors of belonging to unlawful society due to insufficient facts to establish the offence.
”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 carried out by the Police.
“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 DPP legal advice read in part.
