By Falola Damilare
In the month of November 2021, two Nigerians died under very controversial and mysterious circumstances in the South-West, Nigeria. The first, an MBA student of Obafemi Awolowo University, Ife, Timothy Adegoke allegedly died at Hilton Hotel in the ancient city of Ile-Ife, the cradle of Yoruba land.
The Eruwa indigene was said to have lodged at the hotel on Friday, 14th of November having come to write an examination. Trouble was said to have started when the wife who had been keeping tabs of her husband was unable to contact him which necessitated her contacting the husband’s family.
Efforts by Timothy’s brother and the police to trace the deceased yielded result as it was eventually found out that he lodged at Hilton, a fact which was initially denied by the management of the hotel.
The initial denial and the eventual discovery of the corpse of the late Timothy among other factors stirred up the idea of ritual killing which many people, especially social handlers have popularized even all scientific evidence points otherwise.
A lot of preposterous posers, accusations and suggestions have been brought against the owner of the hotel, Dr Rahman Adedoyin and the hotel.
Initially some of the accusers said the body of the deceased was decapitated with body parts removed before being buried within the hotel premises, some said the corpse was buried in Adedoyin’s home. They even went as far as saying Timothy was drained of blood.
However, subsequent investigations by the police laid waste to all this wild speculations which brought up the issue of conducting an autopsy to detect the real cause of Timothy Adegoke’s death and confirm if indeed, he was murdered or that he died a natural death.
An earlier preliminary report of findings by the police after the exhumation of Timothy’s corpse as released on the television by the Osun State Police Public Relations Officer, Yemisi Opalola had indicated that none of his body parts was missing as being spread around on the social media.
The autopsy was later conducted by a team of 3 professors and other pathologists witnessed by representatives of all the concerned parties.
Though the true official document of the autopsy is yet to be released by the police, one point that all parties seem to not contest is that none of the internal as well as external organs is missing and that all these organs are in the respective right places.
The case of the second death which is equally generating so much controversy, it involved the death of a 12-year old school pupil of Dowen College, Lekki, Lagos, Sylvester Oromoni who was alleged to have been a victim of excessive bullying by school mates who allegedly eventually forced him to drink poisonous material which led to his untimely death.
As was the case with Timothy Adegoke’s death, the social media handlers were able pitch the public against the alleged abusers, their families, the school and its management with many becoming overnight self-styled experts at investigation work, school management, parenting and children psychologists.
To worsen the situation was the initial autopsy conducted by the family on the 10th December 2021 which attributed the cause of death to ‘acute lung injury due to chemical intoxication in a background of blunt force trauma’. Because this result was inconclusive, a toxicology screening was recommended and carried out.
The upheaval caused the Lagos State government to order a second and more comprehensive autopsy to ascertain the cause of Sylvester’s death.
The second autopsy was carried out by Dr. S.S Soyemi, the Consultant Pathologist and Chief Examiner, Department of Pathology and Forensic Sciences, Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, Ikeja, Lagos. The autopsy was witnessed by 14 people representing the various parties in the case including Dr. Clemet Vhriterhire, Consultant Pathologist who performed the first autopsy and also represented the family of the deceased.
According to Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Hakeem Odumosu, “The result of the second autopsy carried out in Lagos was released on 21st December 2021. The result attributed the cause of death to ‘Septicaemia, lobar pneumonia with acute pyelonephritis and pyomyositis of the right ankle’.
“On 30th December 2021, the toxicology screening results of the first autopsy carried out in Warri was released. The result issued and signed by Dr Clement Vhriterhire, the same doctor who carried out the initial autopsy attributed the cause of death to ‘acute bacterial pneumonia due to severe sepsis’ he added.
With results of these two autopsies as well as other findings, the police had no other choice than to release all the suspects hitherto arrested which included 3 house masters and 5 students of Dowen College as they could not establish a prima facie case of murder, involuntary manslaughter and or malicious administering of poison with intent to harm’ against them.
The results and conclusion of Sylvester Oromoni’s death and Dowen College leads one to raise some posers and also ask some of questions on the case of Timothy Adegoke, Adedoyin and Hilton Hotels
The social media and their handlers played a major role in swaying the opinions of the public for and against the actors involved in the two scenarios as most were accusers, prosecutors and judges in the matter.
Most often, what is presented to the public by the social media is sensationalism, half-truths and even sometimes complete wrong facts about the events in order to whip up sentiment and gather more followership to their media.
Most of the social media and their handlers published and presented unverified information which after investigations about the police were found out to be false and did not bother to go back to correct the earlier impressions they had created with their misinformation or disinformation
Why is it that the law enforcement agencies cannot curb or even prosecute the social handlers who distort, misinform and disinform because of ulterior motives?
Why is the official result of Timothy’s autopsy still shrouded in secrecy while that of Sylvester Oromoni which took place weeks after is already in public domain?
Why is Dr Adedoyin still in police custody and has not been charged to court if he is actually culpable
If eventually found innocent of ritual killing or murder, who will compensate Adedoyin for the various attacks individuals, social medial and their handlers on his person, his family and his business?
Even if Adedoyin is eventually released, can his image which is currently being destroyed be fully restored in the sight of the public?
Will all the social media and their handlers ever be held accountable for their actions?
The posers and questions are many and desire answers, but whether they would ever be answered is for all to decide. One thing that we all agree on is that these cases, though dragging on for too long, will continue to reverberate in our minds for a long time.
*Damilare sent this piece from Lagos.
