Journalists were barred from covering the resumed proceedings by a coroner inquest into the circumstances that led to the death of 12-year-old Sylvester Oromoni Jnr., a student of Dowen College Lagos, on Monday.
The proceedings into the Inquest had been on hold for about two weeks due to claims that the Magistrate Mikhail Kadiri was indisposed.
But today, the court which was previously sitting in the Ikeja Magistrates’ Court premises by the old Secretariat was however moved on Monday to Court No. 20 Ogba Magistrate Court in the Samuel Ilori courthouse.
At the beginning of the proceeding, the Court’s registrar had informed that the hearing was mainly for lawyers.
He therefore urged journalists and other interested parties to leave the courtroom.
CASEFILE gathered that the decision was taken because some of the senior students of Dowen College (Names withheld) accused of beating the deceased were in court to testify.
According to Mr. Bernard Oniga, the Nigeria Bar Association, NBA-Ikeja representative, journalists would not be allowed to cover the proceedings during the week as minors would be testifying.
“Journalists will be shut out from covering the inquest this week because minors will be testifying.
“The witnesses are minors and the purpose is to protect the Child’s Right Act” he said.
The Oromoni’s family had alleged that the 12-year-old student died on November 30, 2021, from injuries sustained in an attack by five senior students of the college.
The family further alleged that the deceased was attacked fo his refusal to join a cult and he was forced to drink a substance by his attackers.
Legal advice by the Lagos State Director of Public Prosecutions, DPP, released on January 4, however, disputed the allegations.
It stated that an autopsy revealed the cause of the student’s death as acute bacterial pneumonia due to severe sepsis.
