Do you know that the preliminary report by the Lagos Directorate of Public Prosecution, DPP, indicted staff of Dowen College for negligence in the death of Sylvester Oromoni Jnr.?
This is the evidence of a Chief Superintendent of Police, CSP. Bamidele Olusegun.
He told a Coroner magistrate presided by Mikhail Kadiri saddled with the assignment to unravel the circumstances leading to the death of late Sylvester that staff of Dowen College were indicted in the first legal advice issued by the DPP.
The Police witness told the court that he received a report from the DPP dated December 30, 2021 which was called interim legal advice recommended that the staff should be prosecuted for alleged negligence.
The officer serving in the Homicide Section of the Lagos State Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department, SCIID, Panti in 2021 made this disclosure while being cross-examined by a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Mr. Femi Falana.
He also said that he received another legal advice dated January 4, 2022.
To butress his claim, the legal luminary, Mr. Falana further showed the witness the interim report dated December 30, 2021.
The last paragraph read thus: “There are sufficient facts to establish this offence against Mrs. Celina Uduak, Valentine Igboekweze, Hammed Ayomo Bariyu, Adesanya Olusegun, Mr. Adeyemi and Dowen College.
Speaking further, the witness further affirmed that he conducted a thorough investigation on the matter.
He added that he was aware that the police protested that they were not allowed to conclude investigation on the matter.
But he however identified a protest letter written to the Chief Judge of Lagos State by the Police, on the development of the investigation.
The letter reads in part, “It came as a rude shock that the investigation was not allowed to be carried out.”
He also said the suspects were not brought back to the station for the conclusion of the investigation.
He stated further that during investigation, one of the suspects informed him that the deceased was bullied while another said that he was taken to the third floor to be tortured.
He however added that he cannot recollect if any witness told him that the deceased was injured on the 14th of November, 2021.
The witness also affirmed that the deceased’s sister told that he was also bullied sometimes in October and that the boy who allegedly bullied him was not punished for the act.
He also confirmed that a female parent of the school also reported a case of bullying against her son by some students at at Maroko police station.
But cross examinination could not continue because the Director of Public Prosecution, Dr. Babajide Martins, counsel representing Lagos and Mr. Anthony Kpokpo, who was representing Dowen School however informed the court that the said legal advices tendered sought to be tendered by the witness and which Mr. Falana SAN cross-examined him on has not been front-loaded to them.
