A Lagos State coroner’s court ruled that the death of Sylvester was caused by the negligence of his parents and doctor.
Sylvester Oromoni Snr, father of the late 12-year-old Sylvester Jnr, a pupil of Dowen College in Lagos who died under questionable circumstances in November 2021 has faulted the coroner who investigated his son’s death.
Mr Oromoni accused the coroner of covering up for the school management and the bullies, whom he blamed for Sylvester’s death.
A Lagos State coroner’s court ruled that the death of Sylvester was caused by the negligence of his parents and doctor.
Magistrate Mikhail Kadiri determined that Oromoni died as a result of failing treatment for his enlarged liver.
Oromoni died on November 30, 2021. His parents linked his death to bullying by senior students, negligence by the school and a poisonous substance he was allegedly forced to drink by his bullies.
Before his death, Sylvester reportedly said he was beaten up by five Dowen College senior students: Favour Benjamin, 16, Edward Begue, 16, Ansel Temile, 14, Kenneth Inyang, and Micheal Kashamu, 16, who is the son of late Senator Buruji Kashamu.
However, on January 5, 2022, the state government exonerated five pupils and five employees of the college who had been accused of causing Sylvester's death.
“The deceased’s death was an avoidable one but for the negligence of the parents and PW 3. They didn’t take him to the hospital until the day he died on November 30, 2021.
“The deceased went through an avoidable and excruciating pain and made to suffer needlessly,” Kadiri said.
Mr Oromoni, who accused the coroner of shedding “crocodile tears not less than seven times in open court”, lamented that he reached a faulty conclusion.
Accusing the coroner of bias and cover-up, Mr Oromoni said he rejected an application made by team of lawyers led by Mr. Femi Falana (SAN), requesting a visit to Dowen College to enable the coroner to ascertain the state of the school before the death of my son.
He said, “To my utter surprise, the Coroner rejected the application. It turned out later that the Coroner wanted enough time for the management of Dowen College to fix up the physical deficiencies in the school.
“The visit to Dowen College was eventually carried out by the Coroner and the parties on the 1st day of April 2023, 17 months after the death of my son.
“In his desperate bid to exonerate Dowen College of any liability, the Coroner turned round in his verdict to applaud the authorities of the school for upgrading the facilities during the proceedings!
“In order to further exonerate the management of Dowen College of any liability the Coroner engaged in the suppression of material facts of bullying of my son by a clique of students.
“Then the coroner proceeded to blame the cause of death of my son on "parental negligence".
“It is on record that no witness indicted me as I took all steps recommended by the family doctor to save the life of my son as no good father will want his son dead. In rejecting the wicked and heartless conclusion of the Coroner, I have decided to review the evidence that was conveniently suppressed by the Coroner.”
Mr Oromoni in his statement obtained by SaharaReporters on Sunday said he took the decision not to mention the names of the students who testified during the inquest including the accused students.
According to him, he made the decision because they are minors and he does not wish to endanger their lives or destroy their future.
“I shall therefore refer to them by the witness number that was given to each of them by the coroner during the proceedings,” he said.
He accused the coroner of suppressing vital evidence, saying, “PW4 (my daughter) testified that her deceased brother (my son) was bullied in October 2021 by PW22 and two other students when they called him and ordered him to describe her private parts to them.
“When the deceased refused to oblige PW22 and his clique, they threatened to deal ruthlessly with him.
“Despite the fact that the incident was reported to the school management, no action was taken against PW22 and his colleagues.
“Barely a month later i.e in November 2021, my son was again bullied by 5 students. Before he passed away on 30th November 2021, my son had told his own mother and one of my staff, Mr. Peter Odeworitse on the 29th day of November 2021 that he was bullied and given poisonous substance to drink by PW22, PW23, PW25 among the 5 assailants.
“The two other names – PW24 and PW26 were obtained from the School Record Book and social media according to the school and the police.”
He said a witness (PW29) told the court that he saw PW23 “flog my son with a belt in the room on the 3rd floor while my son was crying and cuddled himself with his hands while others laughed at him”.
He said thought PW29 testified that he informed the school principal of Dowen College, Mrs. Adebisi Olayiwola and the Vice Principal about the torture of the deceased by some senior students and that he was asked to write a formal statement which he did and submitted to the principal, the matter was never investigated.
“During the proceedings, the Coroner had questioned the principal and other management staff of Dowen College for not punishing the students who were indicted for bullying my son and other students. But in his lengthy verdict, the Coroner refused to recommend any measure to end bullying in Dowen College,” Mr Oromoni said.
He also accused the school management of negligence, saying the school failed to act promptly after his son reportedly got injured while playing football.
He said, “For undisclosed reasons, the management of Dowen College refused to take my son to the school hospital called Lifeline which is a stone's throw from the school despite the fact that he was reeling in pain for two days.
“The school principal who is not a medical doctor had the audacity to tell the coroner that my son’s condition was not "an emergency" that should have warranted the school to take him to the hospital but it was serious enough to call us the parents to take him home for treatment.”
Mr Oromoni said evidence showed that “right from the time PW22 and his cronies bullied my son in October 2021 when they asked him to describe his elder sister’s private parts up to when he was bullied in November 2021 which I believe led to his untimely death, the school did not take any step to protect my son”.
Narrating how he believed his son was killed, Mr Oromoni said, “The first post-mortem carried out on my son by Dr. Clement Vhriterhire, a Consultant Pathologist based in Warri, Delta State on 1/12/2021, revealed a “greyish liquid substance” was found in the stomach of my son which was sent to the toxicologist in Lagos for test.
“After subjecting the “greyish liquid substance” to a physical examination as container in the report ,the toxicologist recommended that a biochemical assay be carried out on the samples and that can only be done upon the evaluation of the medical history of my son when made available. This was never done till date.
“Dr. S.S. Soyemi, a Consultant Pathologist in Lagos State who carried out the second post mortem conducted on the 14th day of December, 2021 in the presence of 13 other pathologists testified and said that he saw a "blackish substance" in the intestine of my son but that it was not subjected to toxicological examination. He however concluded that my son’s death was caused by septicemia following infections of the lungs and kidneys arising from the ankle wound.
“Dr. Okereke Eze (PW25’s family pathologist) while testifying on the 4th day of April, 2022 admitted that excessive massage of an ankle injury can lead to sepsis.
“Dr. Mojisola Bisiriyi, Nurse Omobola Kayode, and some students of the school all massaged the ankle injury of my son.
“Dr. Aghogho Henry Owhojedor while testifying also admitted that it is possible for sepsis or septicemia to enter the body of my son if injury sustained while playing football is open and not properly managed.
“Since the doctors who gave evidence before the coroner agreed that sepsis could result from excessive massage, the school ought to be held responsible for causing a doctor, two nurses and students to subject the ankle injury of my son to excessive massaging for two days.”
In his jaundiced verdict, the coroner tried but failed woefully to exonerate the killers of my son. Hence, he did not recommend sanctions for the clique of students who subjected my son and other students to torture with the connivance of the authorities of Dowen College. The coroner was silent on the effect of the massaging of my son’s ankle injury by the doctor, nurses and students of Dowen College since sepsis could arise from excessive massaging.”
He accused the coroner of being silent on the evidence of the Warri pathologist who had found "a greyish liquid substance" in his son’s stomach as well as the evidence of the Lagos pathologist who had found "a blackish substance" in his intestine.
Mr Oromoni also lamented the issuance of contradictory legal opinions by the office of the Lagos State Director of Public Prosecution.
He said, “By the Interim Police Investigation Report of 23rd day of December, 2021, the police said as follows “it is evidently clear that some group of students constituted themselves into a clique, that bullies and intimidates fellow students in the school.
“A glaring example is PW23 ‘m’ and PW26 ‘m’ who were earlier reprimanded for bullying other students.
“The said Interim Report also states as follows: ‘The three house masters, Valentine Igbokwueze “m” Ahmed Bariyu Ayomo “m” and Adesanya Olusesan “m” are negligent, passive and failed to take decisive action when cases of inappropriate behavior are reported to them’.
“By the above report, the then Acting Director of Public Prosecutions, Ministry of Justice, Lagos State, Adetutu Oshinusi (Ms) in her Legal Advice of 30th day of December 2021, recommended that Dowen College and its staff named Miss Celina Uduak, Valentine Igbokwueze, Hammed Ayomo Bariyu, Adesanya Olusesan Olusegun and Adeyemi Jeremiah be prosecuted under Section 252 of the Criminal Law. Ch C17, Vol. 3 Laws of Lagos State 2015 for the offence of Negligent Act Causing Harm.”
He lamented that the same DPP wrote another legal advice dated January 4, 2022, which exonerated those earlier recommended for prosecution.
The grieving father urged the Lagos State Government to take urgent steps to investigate the several cases of bullying of students in the college.
“The students and management staff involved in inflicting torture on helpless students in the school should be brought to book without any delay,” he said.