The family of Sylvester Oromoni has faulted the Lagos State Police Command for releasing the housemaster and other staff of Dowen College, Lekki.
Sylvester, a 12-year-old JSS 2 student of the school, died on November 30, 2021.
The school had claimed that he sustained injuries from playing football.
However, the family said before he gave up the ghost, he revealed that he was brutalised by bullies and a substance was forced down his throat.
An autopsy conducted by the Consultant Pathologist, Dr. Clement Vhriterhire, at the Central Hospital, Warri, concluded that Sylvester died of “acute lung injury due to chemical intoxication in a background of blunt force trauma.”
The student’s corpse was, however, conveyed to Lagos and a fresh autopsy was ordered by the police.
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Sylvester’s murder sparked a nationwide outrage forcing the Lagos State Government to shut the school indefinitely. The five accused students were also remanded but granted N1m bail each by a court.
On Friday, the outgoing Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Hakeem Odumosu, said the housemasters had also been released since the court order to remand them had expired.
Odumosu added that the police had concluded its investigations and forwarded its report to the Directorate of Public Prosecutions and had received a response from the DPP.
He said, “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.”
But Sylvester’s father disagreed with the police, insisting that it was wrong to have released the Dowen College workers when things had not reached a logical conclusion.
Mr. Oromoni dared Odumosu to make the autopsy report public.
He further argued that it was strange that the police, while still awaiting the toxicology report, could go ahead to declare that murder had not been established.
Sylvester’s father said, “The police have misled 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?”
