The Lagos State Government on Wednesday closed its case against suspended Assistant Superintendent of Police, Drambi Vandi, who is standing trial for allegedly killing a Lagos-based lawyer Omobolanle Raheem.
This is as the 11th prosecution witness, Dr. Williams Oluwaseun Olatunde, a pathologist and forensic expert testified before Justice Ibironke Harrison of the Lagos State High Court, at the Tafawa Balewa Square, TBS annnex on how the post-mortem examination was conducted on the deceased.
According to Dr. Williams, “On the autopsy date, after the body was wheeled into the morgue, Mr. Gbenga Raheem, the husband of the deceased and an investigating police officer, assigned from the State Criminal Investigating Department were invited to identify the body before his team proceeded to take the measurements of heights, weight and forensic photographs which included the clothing of the deceased.
He said, “The body was undressed and we identified all internal defects and took their photographs. The sizes of these defects were measured and recorded.”
The doctor said that he and his team also proceeded to the internal examination and various were identified and recorded.
“The findings from the external to internal is that there were multiple defects mainly on the Anterior Chest wall and one defect from the left Axillary fold.”
“On internal examination, there were multiple visceral or organ injury and musculoskeletal injury and the specific injuries includes multiple rib fracture, multiple injuries to the intercostal spaces and injuries to both lungs.”
Dr. Williams further stated that he was able to established three things from the examination conducted which could be the cause of death as hemorrhagic shock, destruction of the chest visceral and musculoskeletal tissues.
“The defect was caused by the largest shattered bullet fragment. The targetary path of the bullet is determined by the relative positions of all injuries to each other. In this case, we determine that the targetary path was from left to right.
“The base of the severity of the injuries seen, the bullet was moving at maximum force which was likely to be a discharge from a close range. A bullet could strike an object and bounce in the direction of the body”.
“In simple terms, the deceased was pregnant within the period of less than 3 months.” he said.
Under cross-examination, the pathologist, told Counsel to the defendant, Mr. Adetokunbo Odutola when he was asked if he can determine through his postmortem report, the person who pulled the trigger that killed the deceased, he replied no that he could not determine that.
The lawyer also argued that the witness based his postmortem records on media reports.
But Dr. Williams responded that all conclusions were made based on findings discovered at autopsy.
He added that the degree of explosive force of a bullet discharged from an AK-47 is thousands of the magnitude of a fire hose, that will penetrate into the body, either an individual is standing or sitting.
Thereafter, the defence counsel informed the court that he will be filing a no-case application in a bid to quash the criminal charge.
Odutola made this known shortly after the Lagos Attorney General closed the case of upon the discharge of his last witness.
Subsequently, Justice Harrison told the prosecution and defence team to file an adoption of their final written addresses within five days.
She however adjourned to February 28, 2023 for adoption of their final written addresses.
