The Lagos State Government has exonerated and may soon set free five students and five staff members of Dowen College, Lekki, arrested in connection with the death of Sylvester Oromoni, a JS 2 student of the college, on November 30, 2021.
The exonerated students are: Favour Benjamin (16), Micheal Kashamu (15), Edward Begue (16), Ansel Temile (14) and Kenneth Inyang (15).
The staff of the college cleared are: Celina Uduak, Valentine Igboekweze, Hammed Ayomo Bariyu, Adesanya Olusesan Olusegun and one Adeyemi.
The suspects regained their freedom following the Legal Advice by the Director of Public Prosecution, DPP, Ms. Adetutu Oshinusi, which maintained that “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.”
The advice also took cognizance of the autopsy reports from the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital and the toxicology report of the postmortem carried out which it said tallied with the reports issued by Central Hospital, Warri.
The reports revealed that the cause of Sylvester Oromoni’s death was: pyomoysitis and acute pneumonia resulting from sever sepsis.
The toxicology report, according to the legal advice, has no evidence of poisonous chemical in the body of the deceased as widely speculated and maintained by the family of the deceased.
The DPP added up everything and recommended that the ten suspects be set free, more so when no case of murder, involuntary manslaughter and or malicious administering of poison had been established.
“From available facts in the duplicate case file,” the DPP wrote, “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.”