The family of Yusuf Alowonle, also known as Omomeewa, a former Lagos State University students’ union presidential aspirant shot dead; and an advocacy group, the Education Rights Campaign (ERC), have demanded an autopsy.
Yusuf Nurudeen, the legal counsel and in-law to the family, told PREMIUM TIMES on Sunday that the autopsy would be done as soon as the “police document is completed.”
This newspaper had reported how the student activist and 2019 graduate of Educational Management was shot dead in a robbery attack on Wednesday night not too far from the school entrance.
Mr Alowonle, who was also the ERC Lagos Coordinator, was shot alongside school staff, Waheed Majekodunmi,also known as Majek.
Following the incident, the management of the institution assured that all issues surrounding the attack will be adequately addressed.
Mortuary
In a Facebook post on Saturday, Hassan Taiwo, the national coordinator of ERC, recounted what transpired at the morgue on Friday when he and one Optimist went to retrieve the remains of Omomeewa.
“It was nothing more than a mass of entrails which was highly decomposed and put together in a body bag. The morgue claimed that those who brought the “body” – the Lagos State environmental agency (SEHMO) – claimed that vehicles had gone over the “body” between the period of 10 pm Wednesday night when he died and 5 a.m. Thursday morning it was brought to the Morgue.
Mr Taiwo said it took a “protest” and “the assistance of sympathetic student doctors who studied in LASU and the HOD Pathology” for the morgue attendant to bring the remains of Omomeewa.
He said the attendant admitted to having made a mistake.
“They eventually brought for us another body which was clearly and obviously that of comrade Omomewa. This body had a hole by the side just under the rib cage on the left-hand side of the chest,” he said.
He said the family initially demanded an autopsy but decided against it due to the ongoing doctor’s strike.
‘Attempt to cover up’
Mr Taiwo told this newspaper that there is an attempt by the police to cover up the murder. He also said the autopsy should be done within the “shortest possible time in order to relieve the family of the pain.”
In the Facebook post, Mr Taiwo said one of the documents needed for Omomeewa’s body to be released was obtained at Adoff Police station in Iba, Igando area of Lagos.
“By the time they came with the documents, the DPO of Adoff police station, woman police, was in their tow. According to her, Omomewa was her son and she felt the need to be there personally to secure the release of his body. However, it was her presence, suspicious Facebook post, utterances and that of her men that eventually changed the situation and led to the non-release of the body.
He said one of the police officers claimed that a patrol found the body around 10 p.m. and called the Lagos State environmental agency to pick this body for disposal.
“The agency did not show up until 5 am the next morning. During this time, there was no record that the police offered any first aid assistance to Omomeewa or even tried to take him to the hospital to see if he could be revived. As we all know, only qualified medical personnel, and not the police, can declare a body dead or lifeless, he said.
The police claimed the deceased was not shot but stabbed, however, the morgue attendants who examined the body said the wound could only be caused by a gunshot, which also “coincided with the testimony of the lone survivor, Majek, who said they were shot,” Mr Taiwo said.
He further said that “not so much after this, we realised that all the claims by the police about what happened were not an outcome of the investigation but rather simply ill-informed conjectures and lies.
“For instance, the Investigating Police Officer (IPO), who prepared the police extract for the body’s release, revealed that he had not for once sighted the body for which he prepared a report nor had he or any officer from Adoff Police station visited the scene of the crime or conducted any interview of potential witnesses. So in short, more than 24 hours after the killing, the police had not started any investigation.”
He also accused the police of being “anxious and doing everything to ensure the body was released and buried that very day.”
Mr Taiwo said the police requested that the family swear an affidavit that they would not demand an autopsy as a precondition for the release of the body.
“Of course, this request raised suspicion as to the motive of the Police. It appeared to us that the police just wanted the body to be buried so that the truth of what happened could be buried with it. This situation led to anger and raised tension.”
He said it took the intervention of the Chief Pathologist of the Lagos State Teaching Hospital (LASUTH), John Obafunwa, to call for an autopsy to be carried out on the body and “with this new development, both the family and the police had no choice but to submit. So eventually the burial had to be suspended.
He said the ERC would embark on a legal and political campaign for justice for Omomewa,” to unravel the “motives for his murder.”
When this newspaper reached out to the Lagos police spokesman, Adekunle Ajisebutu, he said he was unaware of the matter.
He requested to see the Facebook post where the post was made. It was sent to him. He did not respond to subsequent calls.