From Ben Dunno, Warri
Justice for Sylvester Oromoni Committee (JSOC), has expressed displeasure over the prolonged delay by the Coroner Inquest set up by the
Lagos State Government to investigate the cause of death of Sylvester Oromoni Jnr, a JSS II student of Dowen College, Lekki, Lagos, who reportedly died from alleged torture by some students.
He died on November 30, 2021, four days to his 12th year birthday on January 4, 2023, from an alleged torture and administration of a poisonous substance forced down his throat by some senior students of the college.
JSOC appealed to the state government, the judiciary and other well meaning Nigerians to prevail on members of the coroner, to immediately make its findings and recommendations available to the public in the interest of justice.
Its Coordinator, Elder Regent Youmor, said: “It becomes necessary for the coroner to immediately declare its findings for the parties involved, to take their next line of action in ensuring that justice prevails.
“It’s unthinkable to see that a coroner inquest that is usually set up with a specific terms of reference and a short time frame to accomplish and submit its findings, to enable parties involved take the next line of action open to them, in any particular case, is now the one foot-dragging to make the report public.
“From our little experience of how coroner inquest works, members are allowed to sit even on Sundays, to be able to meet up with the specified time frame it’s given. But in this case, we have an inquest that adjourns for two months, come back to sit briefly again and then take another three months adjournment for no good reasons.
“It’s becoming very obvious that the coroner is deliberately doing this to frustrate the family of the deceased, to give up on the case; as we want to believe that there is more to the coroner’s delay tactics in this matter than meets the ordinary eye.
“As it stands now, we are being forced to believe that someone or group of people may have been sponsoring members to embark on this delayed proceedings as a way of either buying time to manipulate its report or frustrate the family to lose interest in the case, so that the perpetrators of the dastardly act that took our son’s life can go scot free.
“It is based on this that we, the concerned Ijaw indigenes, both at home and in the Diaspora, are calling on both the federal and Lagos state governments, the judiciary, as well as well-meaning Nigerians to prevail on the coroner inquest to make public its findings, so that the family can proceed with its next line of action.”