Sylvester Oromoni’s family has blasted the Lagos State Police Command for releasing the housemaster and other Dowen College workers.

On November 30, 2021, Sylvester, a 12-year-old JSS 2 student at the school, died. The school stated that he was injured while playing football. However, the family claims that before he died, he stated that he had been beaten by bullies and had a substance shoved down his throat.

Dr. Clement Vhriterhire, a Consultant Pathologist at the Central Hospital Warri, conducted an autopsy and determined that Sylvester died of “acute lung injury due to chemical intoxication in a background of blunt force trauma.”

The student’s body, however, was transported to Lagos, and a new autopsy was ordered by the police.

Sylvester’s death generated a national outcry, prompting the Lagos State Government to close the institution indefinitely. A court also remanded the five accused pupils but granted them N1m bail apiece.

The outgoing Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Hakeem Odumosu, stated on Friday that the housemasters had also been released because the court order remanding them had expired.

Odumosu went on to say that the police had completed their investigation and filed their report to the Directorate of Public Prosecutions and that they had received a response from the DPP.

He said, “The corpse was brought from Delta to Lagos. The post-mortem was carried out in Lagos. The result is out. As of now, it has not brought out the issue of murder on anybody (sic). Toxicology is still to be carried out which is the final one. The interim one has not. Based on that, the court order we got has elapsed and we have released the housemaster and others on bail as of yesterday because they have not been indicted of murder. It is only murder cases that are not subject to bail.

“Since the medical report has not indicted them so far, I think there is a need for them to have their freedom because bail is not the end of the case.”

However, Sylvester’s father disagreed with the police, claiming that it was inappropriate to release the Dowen College employees when the situation had not reached a logical conclusion.

Mr. Oromoni dared Odumosu to publish the autopsy report.

He further noted that it was unusual that the police could pronounce that murder had not been established while still awaiting the toxicology report.

Mr. Oromoni said, “I saw the press briefing by the police commissioner that no one has been indicted and they have been released. The autopsy result conducted in Lagos has not been made public. The one we conducted in Warri has not been made public. So, for him to conclude that no one has been indicted is not acceptable to the family.

“We knew this would happen and that was why we called on the Inspector-General of Police to take over. We have our own autopsy report from Warri. The report was handed over to the police in Delta and we are relying on it.

“The police have led the Nigerian public and we are not comfortable with this. The police acted hurriedly. We sent the corpse to Lagos but why are they waiting for the toxicology report from Delta? Can’t they do it together with the autopsy they are conducting?”