In order to obtain justice, the family of late hotelier Alaba Bakare in Lagos has requested Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu to call for a coroner inquest to determine their son’s real cause of death.
A release of the autopsy report performed at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH) since January 24 was also requested by them in order to facilitate legal processes in the case.
Chief Olufemi Bakare, the deceased’s father, stated that the request was made in accordance with Justice Adeyinka Adeyemi’s order from the Lagos High Court in Ikeja dated August 23, which called for a coroner’s investigation into the case in a lawsuit filed against the State Attorney General, the state director of public prosecution, the Inspector General of Police, and four other individuals.
Akinjide and Taiwo Bakare are additional applications or claims.
Bakare alleged in a petition to the governor dated November 14 that he had tried unsuccessfully to obtain the autopsy report through the offices of the Deputy Commissioner of Police and Chief Medical Examiner, LASUTH.
He continued by saying that he received all of his letters, including acknowledged copies, back. He said that the governor’s chief of staff had similarly returned earlier letters without explanation.
The petitioner claimed that the police had a pattern of lying during their investigations into the death of the late managing director of Bama Hotels and Suits and the details of the DPP, Dr. Babajide Martins’ legal opinion.
The legal opinion, which has reference number LJP/HOM/2022/41 and was dated April 29, requested that Motunrayo Bakare, the deceased’s wife, be charged with “grievous harm” and that the other three suspects be released.
Although numerous witnesses told the police contrary in writing statements, including the first child of the deceased, the late Elizabeth, he maintained that this was done anyhow.
The criminal charges that were suggested to be taken against the deceased’s wife, who supposedly confessed and admitted using a hot iron on the man’s mouth, nose, neck, and chest in the legal advice, were also questioned by him.
“Is it proper to dump the body of the living who sustained grievous harm into a mortuary by the Nigeria Police detectives?,” he said.
Additionally, Bakare said that the DPP’s legal advice, which withdrew the murder accusation against the deceased’s wife and recommended other people be released, was an attempt to obstruct justice. He also requested a review of the document.
He detailed these assertions, which included the medical report produced by the All Souls Hospital, Agege, which was addressed to the Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), SCID and acknowledged by the Police on February 4, 2022, and claimed that the DPP neglected to take these statements into account.
For malicious reasons, he said, the DPP guidance failed to mention the existence of the medical report, in which one Dr. U.E. Abraham, a medical officer at the hospital, declared that “patients were brought in dead.”
As it was sent to the DCP for official purposes and not in secret under the pretence that the Police did not perform a proper investigation into the issue, he claimed that such a medical report shouldn’t be disregarded by any public official.
He claimed that the DPP’s failure to consider the document damaged his right to justice.
