The Lagos State Police Command now has five students of the embattled Dowen College, in which custody a student, Sylvester Oromoni Jnr, was allegedly tortured, leading to his death later, in its custody. Three of the school’s housemasters are also in police custody.
The Police said four of the students were allegedly mentioned by the parents of the victim to be directly involved in the crime while another student is assisting police investigations.
Commissioner of Police in the state, Hakeem Odumosu, told journalists on Tuesday nobody is above the law, adding that the Force would carry out its work in line with the juvenile laws.
“The students whose names were mentioned are in police custody and investigation is on. Equally too, I have gotten in touch with my colleague in Delta State,” he said.
“Yesterday, I spoke with the mother of the deceased. I got them invited, so once they come now, we will be able to get the full facts of the case. The school has told us their own version of the case and the parents too, we will get their own version of the story.”
Odumosu explained that four groups were involved in the case – the families of the children that are alleged to have committed the torture, the school’s authorities, the deceased’s family, and the government.
According to him, the four groups would come together to do and witness the post-mortem that will be conducted on Sylvester’s corpse in order to achieve an objective result.
Meanwhile, the Coroner, Epe District, Magistrate Mikail Kadiri, has fixed December 15 for a preliminary meeting over the death of Sylvester Oromoni Jnr.
The date for the preliminary meeting was fixed on the directive of the Chief Coroner of Lagos State, Justice Mojisola Dada.
It was announced in a letter dated December 7, 2021, and titled ‘RE: REQUEST FOR INQUEST INTO THE TRAGIC DEATH OF SYLVESTER OROMONI KILLED AT DOWEN COLLEGE, LEKKI, LAGOS STATE’.
This was in response to the request by the family of Oromoni for an inquest to be conducted into the cause of death of their son who died last week.
The Oromoni family had on Monday briefed the law firm of Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) and human rights activist, Mr. Femi Falana, to demand the inquest.
“Your letter dated 6th December 2021 in respect of the above subject matter refers, please.
“I have the directive of the Chief Coroner of Lagos State, Honourable Justice M.A. Dada to act on your request and you are hereby invited to a preliminary meeting,” the letter read.
The meeting would take place on Wednesday next week by 11 am at Magistrate Court 4, Chambers of the Coroner, Epe District, Combined High Court and Magistrate Court of Lagos State, Epe.