Lagos State Govt. Clears Five Dowen Students, Staff Accused of Being Responsible for Sylvester’s Death

The Lagos State Government has cleared and exonerated the five students and five staff accused of being responsible for the death of the 11-year-old Dowen pupil, Sylvester Oromoni.

The suspects were cleared following the Legal Advice of the Director of Public Prosecution, DPP, Ms. Adetutu Oshinusi.

Channels Television obtained a copy of the legal advice which was addressed to the Deputy Commissioner of Police, State Criminal Investigation Department, SCID and the trial magistrate, Magistrate Olatunbosun Adeola.

According to the advice, the interim and final autopsy reports issued by the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital and toxicology report of post mortem samples and that of the Central Hospital, Warri were in agreement as to the cause of death namely: Septicaemia, Lobar Pneumonia with Acute Pyelonephritis, Pyomyositis of the right ankle and Acute Bacteria Pneumonia due to severe Sepsis.

The result of the toxicology test also revealed that there was no form of toxic substance or poison in the body of the deceased.

The DPP’s legal advice, therefore, concluded that based on these findings, there is no prima facie case of murder, involuntary manslaughter and or malicious administering of poison with intent to harm against the five students, Favour Benjamin aged 16, Micheal Kashamu (15), Edward Begue (16), Ansel Temile (14) and Kenneth Inyang (15).

The State also cleared the students of allegations linking them to a secret or unlawful society as no evidence was found to back this up.

Excerpts from the document states that;

“from available facts in the duplicate case file, the investigation carried out by the Police did not reveal that any secret society name, tattoo or insignia of any unlawful society was found in the possession of any of the suspects during the investigation carried out by the Police.

“To hold otherwise would amount to sniffing for an offence and a speculative act which is not permitted in law. It is trite law that suspicion no matter how grave cannot be a ground for conviction”.

The state also vindicated the school and five employees: Celina Uduak, Valentine Igboekweze, Hammed Ayomo Bariyu, Adesanya Olusesan Olusegun and one Adeyemi of the offence of Negligent Act Causing Harm contrary to section 252 of the Criminal Law Ch. C17, Vol.3, Laws of Lagos State 2015.

The Lagos State Govt further called for the immediate release of the suspects if any was still in police custody.

However, Dowen College is still closed.