Chrisland seeks autopsy review, inquest begins April 4

The hearing of the Coroner Inquest set up to ascertain the cause of death of a 12-year-old Chrisland International School pupil, Whitney Adeniran, who died on February 9, 2023, during the school’s inter-house sports activities at Agege Stadium, Lagos will commence hearing in the matter on April 4.

The Coroner Magistrate, Olabisi Fajana, fixed the date on Monday after entertaining submissions of all lawyers who appeared before the Magistrate Court, sitting in Ogba.

Counsel for the deceased family, Femi Falana (SAN), told the court that they were unable to file a witness statement as instructed by the court at the last adjourned date.

Falana informed the court that the magistrate’s registry refused to process the enrolling of the witness statement because there was no provision for filing of coroner processes.

Advertisement

Also, counsel for Chrisland School, Olukayode Enitan (SAN), and the Lagos State lawyer, Akin George, corroborated Falana’s position, seeking the court’s directives on how to get their processes filed.

However, Magistrate Fajana told the lawyers that she would get directives from the Chief Magistrate on how to ensure that the processes were filed before the Coroner.

Meanwhile, the school’s lawyer, Enitan, informed the court that he had an application before it, seeking to get samples and materials to carry out an independent evaluation of the autopsy report.

In a counter-reaction, Falana, who noted that they have not been served, told the court that the autopsy of the deceased was done in the presence of the school representatives and other concerned parties.

But the state counsel, George, in his response to the application, told the court that what the state received was a letter, not an application and that the state would respond at the appropriate time.

Consequently, Magistrate Fajana adjourned the commencement of trial till April 4 and directed all lawyers to ensure that all their processes were filed and confirmed on April 3.

On March 2, the Lagos State Government said Adeniran died of asphyxia and electrocution.

This was stated in the post-mortem report received by the state on the cause of Adeniran’s death.

The report dated March 1, 2023, was issued by the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital.

Whitney’s mother, Blessing, had on March 1, revealed in an Instagram live video that the autopsy carried out on her daughter revealed she died of electrocution during the school’s sports activities.

But the school management had released a statement after her death that she slumped in “public view and not under any hidden circumstances.”

The deceased was buried on March 2.