Mother of late Dowen college student, Sylvester Oromoni Jr, dies two years after his tragic death

The mother of Sylvester Oromoni, the 12-year-old student of Dowen College who died in controversial circumstances in Lagos state on November 30, 2021, has died. 

According to family sources, Mrs Oromoni died in late November after battling with an intermittent blood pressure-related illness.

Her demise comes seven months after a special court in Lagos in April this year ruled against her family on a case concerning her son’s demise. The Oromonis had accused some students of the school of bullying, beating and feeding their 12-year-old son with a chemical which led to his demise. They dragged the school and students to court but the case was subsequently dismissed for lack of evidence.

Dowen College had dismissed the claim, stating that the late student only sustained injuries while playing football with his friends. The Oromoni family had countered Dowen’s claim, arguing that their son had no pre-existing health challenges before the incident.

In January 2022, an initial autopsy declared that Oromoni Junior died of “acute lung injury due to chemical intoxication.” This post-mortem was discredited due to its methods and some dissatisfactions surrounding the parties who witnessed the procedure.

The Lagos Department of Public Prosecution (DPP) conducted a second autopsy which ruled that Oromoni died “naturally”.

The case was under inquiry in a coroner’s court from 2022 until last April when it got a final ruling. The accused boys were cleared by the court and released from the juvenile home in 2022.

The judge, Mikhail Kadiri, held that Oromoni d!ed of sepsis emanating from an infection of the lungs and kidney caused by an ankle injury. Kadiri attributed Oromoni’s death to “parental and medical negligence” and exonerated the authorities of Dowen College. The coroner’s verdict also ruled that neither bullying nor chemical poisoning as alleged was responsible for the student’s death.

Late Oromoni was buried on January 27, 2024, after the bereaved family opted to keep his corpse in the morgue as a protest gesture.