A consultant pathologist at Osun State University Teaching Hospital, Osogbo, Dr. Waheed Oluogun, on Wednesday revealed that the death of the late master’s student of Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ile, Timothy Adegoke, was caused by severe haemorrhage secondary to severe traumatic injury.
Adegoke had lodged in Hilton Hotels and Resorts at Ile-Ife upon his arrival from Abuja on November 5 to enable him to arrive early for his examination at the OAU Distance Learning Centre, Moro, Osun State, on November 6 and November 7.
At the resumed hearing on Wednesday at the Osun State High Court in Osogbo, Oluogun, the 5th prosecution witness, being led in evidence by the prosecution counsel, M. Omosun, told the court that he undertook postmortem on the deceased on 22nd November 2021 alongside six other experts.
According to the health worker, other experts who conducted the autopsy with him were Prof. E. Afolayan, Prof. J. Obafunwa, Prof. O.S Ojo, Dr. O.A Komolafe, Dr. S. Soyemi, and Dr. H. Akinyemi.
Giving further testimonies before the court, Oluogun said he was present at the scene, where the corpse of the deceased was exhumed on 15th of November, 2021, at a place located along Ile-Ife/Ede Road.
He said he got a call from one Inspector Hafiz Olaniyan asking him to come for the exhumation of the dead body at Ile Ife, Osun state.
“When I got there, I met some police operatives, three members of the family were present and a Deputy Commissioner of Police in Osun also joined us at the site. At the site, we found a buried dead body along Ile-Ife/Ede Road about 1.5 kilometres to OAU campus gate.
“While exhuming the body, it was found to be completely wrapped in a bloody stained duvet without exposing any part of the body. It was found in a supine position with two different ropes, one around the neck, one around the ankles.
“There were maggots found around the left side of the head up to the entire left upper limb. The body was taken to the mortuary section of UNIOSUN Teaching hospital, Osogbo. The body was identified by his brother, Adegoke Olugbade.
“At our teaching hospital, we planned for postmortem examination to know the cause of death. On the 22nd November 2021, seven pathologists came for the examination.
“A pre-autopsy meeting was held. The autopsy started around 2:25 pm. X-ray was done in UNIOSUN Teaching Hospital, which revealed a fracture of the right thigh bone. On external examination, we received an adult black man. There was a circum clean-cut wound on the left side of the left chest wall measuring 6 by 4 cm close to the left armpit.
“The soft tissue around that area showed marked tissue reaction measuring 32 by 13 centimetres. On internal examination, there was generalised autolysis of internal organs with striking generalised organ pallor. There was a blood clot in the right chest cavity. There was a fracture of the left hyoid bone of the neck with the fracture of the right cricoid cartilage.
“There were no superficial neck markings. There was no obvious tissue reaction to the neck. No bleeding to the neck. The brain, the heart, lungs, liver, spleens, kidneys are present in their normal anatomical position with various degrees of decomposition. The external genitalia is intact.
“Tissues were taken from the wound sites for microscopic examination. We compared it with the normal right chest wall. The results revealed there was bleeding to the tissue around the wound site. The right side of the chest wall showed only autolysis.
“There was complete skeletonisation of the entire upper limb with disarticulation of left elbow joint and left wrist joint. The bone of the arm separates from the bone of the wrist joint. I certify the cause of death to be severe haemorrhage secondary to severe traumatic injury,” Oluogun said.
But under cross-examination, counsel for the first defendant, K. Eleja, SAN, asked the consultant if the disarticulation he mentioned was not because the corpse was not preserved.
But Oluogun said the disarticulation must have occurred before the demise of Adegoke, as such did not occur at the other side of the deceased body.
Eleja also told Oluogun that he did not indicate that the disarticulation occurred before the death of the deceased in his report, which the doctor admitted.
Asked if he knew that the body was dumped on the ground before some officials of a local government in Ile-Ife buried it, Oluogun said he did not know.
Oluogun though admitted that there would be an increase in the rate of decomposition of a dead body dumped without preservation, but while responding to further probe by Eleja, he said the severity of the decomposition would only alter body structure, but organs would still be recognisable.
The pathologist, who also noted he did not have a medical history of the deceased before his death, further said microscopic examination conducted revealed that the internal organs were intact.
Being further cross-examined by the counsel for 2nd, 4th, 5th defendants, Muritala Abdulrasheed, SAN, Oluogun who was asked if his conclusion that the deceased did not die a natural death was based on scientific findings, said during the postmortem, it was revealed there was no disease on Adegoke’s organs before his death.
Also reexamined during the proceedings was the investigating police officer, Hafiz Olaniyan, while Inspector Sunday Oloko from Force Intelligence and Investigation Department also gave an account of the investigation conducted by the Force headquarters after it took over the matter.
Justice Adepele Ojo adjourned the matter till Thursday for the continuation of the hearing