As Court proceedings on the case resume
A medical doctor, Aghogho Henry Owhojede, has narrated to the Lagos Coroner Court how he treated the late Sylvester Oromoni Junior in Warri, Delta State, when he was brought from Lagos.
Sylvester Oromoni, a 12 year old student of Bowen College, Lagos died on November 30, 2021 and his parents blamed his death on alleged bullying by certain older students of the school believed to be members of a cult group.
At the resumed hearing yesterday, Tuesday 1st February, the lead counsel to the Oromoni family, Mr Femi Falana, SAN, tendered the doctor’s statement on oath at the court.
He told the court that he had been the family doctor for 15 years, but he had been in general practice for 24 years.
In his seven-hour testimony before Coroner Magistrate Mikhail Kadri, the family doctor said that the father of late Oromoni Junior called him that his son was brought from Lagos and needed serious medical attention.
He said he conducted a test on him and discovered that the boy had hepatomegaly, a medical term for an enlarged liver.
He said there was no evidence of assault on his body, but trauma or beating could cause the liver to swell.
The medical practitioner added that bleeding to the liver could also cause its enlargement.
During the proceeding, Dr Owhojede , answered questions from counsel to Dowen College, two accused students of the school, Lagos State Government and the Nigerian Bar Association.
According to the medical doctor, he treated the late Master Oromoni for acute malaria at the family home in Warri, Delta, from November 26, 2021, to November 30, 2021.
The doctor also told the court that ailing Master Oromoni was taken to church for prayers for an unspecified number of days by his family.
“I am aware that the church is not a treatment centre. I am not against prayer, I will prefer a combination of both prayer and medical treatment,” the doctor said while replying the question by the council to the Lagos State Government.
The doctor said that on the day Master Oromoni died (November 30, 2021), he had referred him to Delta State University Teaching Hospital, Oghara, for further treatment.
He said that the late Master Oromoni could not be taken to the teaching hospital because his condition deteriorated “and he passed away”.
The Coroner, Mikhail Kadiri, adjourned proceedings until February 7 for continuation of hearing.
The News Agency of Nigeria, NAN, had reported that it was alleged that Oromoni died from injuries sustained in an attack by five senior students of Dowen College for allegedly refusing to join a cult.
It was also alleged that he was forced to drink an obnoxious substance by his attackers.
Advice by the Lagos State Directorate of Public Prosecution, which was released on January 4, however, disputed the allegations.
According to the advice, two separate autopsies revealed Master Oromoni’s cause of death as acute bacterial pneumonia due to severe sepsis.
Sources include Radio Nigeria Lagos, NAN, Premium Times, Monitoring of the proceeding
