A Magistrate’s court sitting in Ikorodu, Lagos, has granted leave to the family of late singer, Ilerioluwa Aloba, a.k.a Mohbad, to conduct a private autopsy on the deceased to determine the cause of his death.
The development followed the family’s displeasure over the result of the last autopsy.
Recall that the pathologist in charge of the last autopsy, Prof Shokunle Shoyemi, had in the last sitting, told the court that he could not arrive at any reasonable conclusion on what killed the late singer because his body had decomposed by the time the test was conducted.
Magistrate Adedayo Shotobi ruled that the autopsy be conducted as prayed by the family in the presence of the deceased’s wife and mother.
However, the court refused an application by a voluntary organisation seeking to join the proceedings because it didn’t show enough reasons why it should be joined. Also, the application asking for some witnesses to be recalled and more others called was granted in part.
The court adjourned further hearing till August 7.
At a press conference by the family, shortly after the court session, Mohbad’s father, Joseph Aloba, noted that conducting a fresh autopsy would clear the doubts he had about the last autopsy which took several months before the result was released.
He said: “I am not pleased with the autopsy results, with the conclusion given, and because of the time frame used in conducting it. From my interactions with medical professionals, I was made to understand that it takes less than eight to ten weeks, but it took six to seven months. That is why we need to carry out a private autopsy.”
Aloba, however, condemned the request by Mohbad’s mother, Abosede, and wife, Wunmi, seeking a quick burial of the deceased when facts were still sketchy about his death.
He said: “I wasn’t happy seeing the mother and wife trying to go against justice because they were eager to bury Mohbad’s body.”
While faulting the alleged lackadaisical approach of the state government in handling the case which has been dragging for almost a year, he assured that the family would not rest until justice is served.
He added that the family would begin burial preparations after the second autopsy is conducted.
In his remarks, a member of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Ikorodu Branch, and a counsel to the family, Aromolaran Adebowale, lamented the slow pace of judicial process over the matter.
He justified the need for another autopsy, saying since the court had established he didn’t die naturally, the family is at liberty to unravel the cause of the death, since the first autopsy failed to determine what led to his death.
He said: “Evidence before the court, as we speak, now says he didn’t die naturally and there is no cause of death. There must be a cause of death before we talk about who killed him, what is the major nexus between the cause of death and the suspected persons.
“That is what we need to prove before the court and if we haven’t done that, we cannot get justice. The purpose of our struggle is to get justice and not just to make a noise.
“To be reasonable about this matter, it is of essence to conduct another autopsy because the one they have done does not have conclusive evidence.”
An advocate of justice for Mohbad, Grace Sonde, said accepting an inconclusive result without finding evidence of the cause of his death is an affront to the millions of Nigerians who have been in the struggle for months.
