According to the Oromoni’s family, there is a plot to frustrate them from seeking justice.
The family of the deceased 12-year-old pupil of Dowen College, Lekki, Lagos, Sylvester Oromoni Jnr, allegedly tortured to death by some senior students who wanted to initiate him into a cult group, has raised the alarm over an alleged plot to unnecessarily delay proceedings at the coroner’s inquest into his death.
According to the Oromoni’s family, there is a plot to frustrate them from seeking justice.
Specifically, the family indicted the representative of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) in the court proceedings, one Bernard Onigah, who it claimed was been used to create confusion at every court sitting just to ensure that the Coroner never arrived at a conclusion to make its final report based on findings and substantial evidence at its disposal.
Consequently, the father of the deceased, Mr. Sylvester Oromoni, who spoke with journalists in Warri at the weekend, urged the leadership of the NBA to withdraw its representative, Onigah, from the court proceedings in order to allow the Coroner to carry out its job diligently, so as to arrive at a conclusion in bringing out its report on the matter early enough.
He stated that the failure of the NBA leadership to continue to keep Onigah as its representative in the court would be interpreted as complicity on the part of the body to frustrate the proceedings, thereby prolonging sittings in order to deny the family the justice craved over their son's death.
In the meantime, Sylvester Oromoni has appealed to Nigerians to keep the faith with the family, as they would not relent in their efforts until they secure justice for their late son who was alleged to have been tortured by a gang of senior students before being released to die some days later.
While assuring that no level of frustration can make the family abandon the cause of justice for their son, Oromoni noted that the family was determined to seek justice even if it’s going to take them another three decades.
According to him, from the events of the past few weeks at the Coroner inquest, we can draw a conclusion that some parties in the case have resulted in using one Bernard Onigah, a representative of the NBA in the matter to buy more time by causing confusion and unnecessary setback at every sitting in order to delay its report and frustrate the family.
He said, "We, the members of the Oromoni family, hereby urged the leadership of the NBA to immediately withdraw its representative, Bernard Onigah from the Coroner, in order to assist in making the court draw conclusions based on findings and present its report appropriately.
"I wish to state categorically that failure of NBA leadership to withdraw Bernard Onigah from the panel after this passionate appeal would be interpreted as complicity on the part of its leadership to continue to frustrate the court proceedings through its representative who had been causing confusion and dragging the court back.
"We are not unmindful of the fact that NBA representatives just like other bodies were supposed to play an observer role in the inquest proceedings but to our greatest surprise, the said Bernard Onigah has assumed the role of a Defence counsel in the case by raising issues that tend to frustrate proceedings in order to buy time before the Coroner.
"However, we want to appeal to Nigerians to keep the faith alive with the Oromoni family and wish to thank everyone who stood by us during our trying period last December when we lost our Dear promising son, Sylvester Oromini Jnr, to the cold hand of death as a result of complications from the torture he received while in school.
"We assured everyone that we will continue to remain focused on the case and no amount of plots to frustrate or discourage us would succeed, as we are determined more than ever before to get justice for our late son even if it would take us another 30 years to achieve this, we are prepared.”
He lamented the present situation where those alleged to have masterminded and carried out the torture that led to the death of his son had resumed a new academic session in the same school, Dowen College, while his son remained lifeless in the mortuary.
He stated that no frustration would deter him from getting justice for his late son.
The family had accused five students of Dowen College namely Kenneth Inyang, Ansel Temile, Edward Begue, Michael Kashamu, and Benjamin Favour of being involved in torturing Sylvester, who later died.