Follow Us on Google
Security expert, Dr. Ona Ekhomu, has faulted the determination of the Presidential panel on mysterious deaths in Kano State that COVID-19 was responsible for the deaths. He said that the panel erred in its conclusion as the methods used in determining causes of deaths (COD) did not conform with forensic pathology methodology.
Reacting to the preliminary report of the Dr. Nasiru Sani Gwarzo Presidential Panel, Ekhomu said that the panel should have conducted conventional autopsies on the bodies to determine COD. He said: “The so-called verbal autopsies are unscientific, have no validity, have no reliability and, certainly, are not reproducible”.
Ekhomu, who is president of the Association of Industrial Security and Safety Operators of Nigeria (AISSON), said that relying on the age of victims was mere profiling (a class characteristic) and did not constitute an individualized explanation of the deaths. According to him, the report by the panel blaming COVID-19 was fatally flawed, did not reach the threshold of forensic pathology, and should not have made such a weighty conclusion. He urged the panel to suspend its final report while a crack team of forensic pathologists be deployed to conduct normal forensic examination on the victims. Their internal organs should be examined, toxicology tests should also be conducted for toxins, along with other death investigation protocols. He said that the scientific method of forensic pathology should not change because it is occurring in Kano.
Ekhomu said that it behooves the Federal Government to determine what is killing Nigerians in Kano. “With my forensic science knowledge, I can guess that there is an epidemic (not COVID-19) ravaging communities in Kano. It is the responsibility of the Federal Government to send medical detectives to Kano, accompanied by crack police detectives to unravel the mystery.”
According to Ekhomu, possible causes of the mysterious deaths in Kano include Lassa Fever, tuberculosis, kidney malfunction epidemic, Ebola Fever, adulterated hard drugs and some unknown pathogen, etc. “The deaths could have originated from a breach in the food supply chain, or even malevolent tampering with medicines.
“The proper thing is to conduct medical examination of the human remains to determine exact cause of death (COD), while the police detectives figure out if the deaths were from natural causes or from foul play,” he said.
