Wale Jagun, Mariam Akinloye & Bolu Orebajo (SIWES Student)
-Court stays proceeding
The lawyer to the late Ilerioluwa Aloba, a.k.a ‘Mohbad’, Barr. Wahab Shittu, SAN, has alleged that the pathologist that gave evidence at the last proceeding of the inquest before the coroner suspended further sitting on the death of the popular hiphop artiste, based on the order of a High Court, produced an inconclusive evidence.
Shittu, who spoke with reporters outside the court, said that there are evidences before the pathologist from which he could have deduced what killed the late music star.
The action of the court generated protests from members of the public under the aegis of ‘Justice for Mohbad’, who have been following the proceedings. But some lawyers to parties to the matter agreed that the coroner did the right thing to obey the order of a higher court.
At the court on the day were Mr Alogba, Mohbad’s father, Mr Joseph Aloba, his mother, Mrs Abosede Aloba, wife, Mrs Cynthia Adebajo and his childhood friend, Owodunni Ibrahim, popularly called Prime By among others
Barrister Shittu, speaking, said that the pathologist gave an inconclusive evidence.
“From the proceedings today, it is clear to everyone, including the blind, that the pathologist gave the report that is inconclusive. There are certain steps that he ought to have taken by virtue of the toxicology report which he admitted were not taking”, the lawyer said.
“He also admitted that there were problems with the lungs, problems with the heart, problems with the kidney, and problems with the screen and any of those problems could have caused death.
“If there are problems with those vital organs of the body from moderate to severe oratorizes, from what he said, by his own conclusions, then, you cannot say you can’t ascertain the cause of the death.
“He also admitted that there was injury, and injury, if not taken care on time, could lead to infection. The question to ask is that, is it not possible for injury to cause death? Is it not possible for injury, if it leads to infection, to cause death?
“So, all of us are knowledgeable. We all know that even if you hit your leg on a stone, that can result to death. He discovered several things that were wrong in the report. He found out that the lung is faulty, the heart, kidney, pancreas, the screens, all of these suffered. From his own words, “moderate to several authoress”, and when something is severe, can’t it cause death?
“He cannot come before the court and tell the court that the cause of death cannot be ascertained. He also said that the injection the nurse gave (to Mohabd) and the substance he analysed and you know that the substance can cause death too, from the diagnosis of the substances.
“From all indications, there were enough materials before him, which should have pointed to the direction of what caused the death, but he shows to ignore all those materials, and came to a conclusion and he even said that the toxicology report that he read was not made by him. When I asked him when the toxicology report was certified, but there was no report before the court”, he said.
Mohbad’s family lawyer said that the court should look beyond the pathologist’s report to determine the cause of the late singer’s death.
“If you want to look for the cause of the death of Mohbad, you should look beyond this report, because he said he did not visit the scene of the crime; he did not visit the hospital and that, he did not even ascertain the manner of his death.
“All he was concerned with was the cause of the death which he believes was not ascertain. Through the cross examination, if you were in court, he was highly discreditable. The report was highly discreditable, so, let’s wait for further proceedings”, he added.
Speaking on the order of the High Court to the coroner to stay proceeding on the inquest, Barr. Shittu said that the court was right to comply.
“We could not continue today, because there was a court order from the High Court that was obtained by another party, and when an order is obtained, whether rightly or wrongly, you must obey it.
“The High Court has given an order, the coroner has no choice than to stay proceedings.
“What I will appeal to people is that, this Magistrate, the coroner, in my view, is interested in doing justices and I think that we should give the court a benefit of the doubt”, the lawyer said.
Barrister Kabiru Akingbolu, lawyer to Wunmi, late Mohbad’s wife, speaking on the suspension of the coroner sitting, also agreed with the decision of Magistrate Adedayo Shotobi.
“We have what we call hierarchy of Courts in Nigeria. We have the Magistrate court, High Court or Federal High Court which are courts of coordinate jurisdiction and the National Industrial Court, which are courts of coordinate jurisdictions by Section 6 of the Constitution, then, we have the Court of Appeal, and the Supreme Court.
“If a proceeding is going on in one court, especially in the lower court, for instance, the Magistrate Court, where we are…..
“I know that sometimes ago, Professor Smith came to the court to bring application as a joinder and the court was of the opinion that we have gone far in the proceedings and that bringing an application at this point is inappropriate.
“The court, however, granted him the permission or leave for him to ask his questions, but he felt aggrieved and said that he is going to challenge it and now he has challenged that decision of the court and the High Court has granted a stay of proceedings till further notice. Until that order is vacated, this court will be acting in violation of the superior court.
“The court has done the right thing to stay proceeding, and watch what is going to happen with the appeal filed”, he said.
He said that his client is reappearing because she has nothing to hide and will assist the court in determining the cause of her husband’s death.
“It is unfortunate, because these kind of things…. It is not very safe bringing our client out, but because we don’t want to create a wrong impression in the minds of the people, and to show that my client, Mohbad’s wife, has nothing to hide, that is why we let her come out today and she is here now since morning, but nothing is happening again because today has been wasted.
“This is a lot of trouble and you can see the way they were shouting. That is one of things that we don’t want happening. This kind of thing is passing a wrong information or signal to the public or the society who will be thinking that it is the lawyers that are delaying or the judge or the state, but it is not so.
“We have to follow the rules of law and there is nothing that anybody can do about that. The Magistrate want to go on, but the law has hanged her hands. Her hands her tight”.
While denying that the stay of proceeding was to shield his client from further cross examination, Barr. Kabiru said that the court only acted on an order by an higher court, which the coroner has to comply with.
“It is highly preposterous to common sensical reasoning for anybody to think that the court suspended sitting because she was about to give evidence.
“What actually happened was in the public glare and in the face of everybody. I was not aware of any court order until my learned silk said it and as a responsible judge and an experienced one at that, she should not take it for granted and continue with the proceedings
“She also identified the fact that an important witness was in court. She wanted to go on, but she can’t because of the law. Now, what power has my client to say that the court should not go on?
“She has already given evidence and calling her to come and give evidence again is abnormal. I can go to the High Court to get an order (to prevent her from appearing to give evidence again), since she had already given evidence and calling her to give further evidence is an oppression and abnormal and if they don’t grant us, we will go to the appeal and if they still don’t grant us, we will go to the Supreme Court, but we don’t want to do that. It can last 10 years and she will not give (any further) evidence.
“This is to tell you that we are willing, have nothing to hide and have no skeleton in our cupboard. We want to help with the process.
“We are lawyers and we must help keep the tenet of the rule of law, because we believe in it
“The inquest is just being kept in abeyance of the order of court that it should be suspended until the order granting the stay has been discharged. It is like putting a seal or blockage on something that it cannot pass until certain conditions are met. So, when the conditionalities are met, we will come back here and continue with the inquest”, he said.
