A hospital did not treat Sylvester Oromoni Jnr, a deceased Dowen College student who was said by his family to have suffered injuries as a result of bullying by five senior pupils at the college.
According to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), Mr Sylvester Oromoni Snr, the father of late Oromoni Jnr, made the discovery on Monday during a cross-examination by the counsel for one of the accused students, Mr Godwin Omoaka, during an Ikeja Coroner's Inquest (SAN).
After the Oromoni family doctor, Dr Aghogho Owhojede, informed the inquest that there was no private ward available in his hospital, the witness' son was treated at home in Warri, Delta, according to the witness' testimony.
He outlined the sequence of events that occurred from the time Oromoni Jnr was picked up from school by his guardian, Mr Clifford Tejere, on November 23, 2021, to the present.
He stated that Tejere did not observe any signs of beating on the body of the deceased and that there was no swelled patch on the ankle of the late student, which had been reported by the school to have been caused by a football injury, on the body of the deceased.
According to the witness, his family did not do a full body x-ray when he returned home from school as they had previously stated.
"On the part of the procedure that the school requested, which was the legs down, there was an x-ray performed. According to Oromoni Snr, the man was brought to a diagnostic centre.
The deceased's father revealed that his son was not taken to the hospital by his family on November 24, 2021, and that he arrived Lagos from Delta at 6 p.m. on November 25, 2021, after being informed by his family that his son was in a critical condition.
He revealed that as soon as he arrived in Lagos, he returned his son to Dowen College, arriving at the school at 7:00 p.m. to help him pack his belongings for the trip home.
He claimed that on November 26, 2021, he and his son travelled to Warri, Delta, where they arrived in the evening. He claimed that Oromoni Jnr was not taken to the hospital on that day.
'On November 26, 27, and 28, 2021, he was treated at my home in accordance with the doctor's orders.
The following day, on November 29, he was transported to St Louis Laboratory for a scan. We were referred to the facility by our physician.
'I was not present because I had gone to my home in Asaba, Delta to pick up something, and I returned the following morning, which was November 30, 2021,' I explained.
"He passed away on November 30, 2021; I was already in Warri at the time of his death. "I was in the hospital when the doctor verified to us that he had passed away," he explained.
The witness went on to say that after Oromoni Jnr's death was verified, the family wished to bury him as soon as possible after the announcement.
"They were transporting him to the cemetery from the clinic. I contacted them, and they came back with him in the Hilux that they had been using to transport him, and they parked in front of my entrance gate.
According to him, "the police arrived and photographed and videotaped the body, following which they instructed me to transport him to a mortuary rather than bury him."
Because of the witness's disclosure, Omoaka requested that a series of interviews Oromoni Snr had provided to the media (Arise TV, the Punch Newspapers, and the BBC Pidgin) be broadcast at the inquest.
The witness claims that his son was pulled, badly assaulted, and had his stomach stumped upon by some senior pupils at the school, according to the different videotapes available.
Following further questioning, Oromoni Sr admitted that he had never visited his son's dormitory at Dowen College, which had been built for him.
If his kid had been beaten by suspected bullies, the father conceded that other students would have heard him cry out, which he believed to be the case.
For the sake of continuing the cross-examination, the Coroner, Mr Mikhail Kadiri, has deferred proceedings till February 15.
Keep in mind that it was previously reported that the 12-year-old Oromoni died on Nov. 30, 2021, from injuries sustained after an attack by five senior pupils of Dowen College for reportedly refusing to join a cult on the same day.