Sylvester Oromoni: Family seeks withdrawal of NBA representative at coroner’s inquest

The family of the late Sylvester Oromoni Jnr has asked that Bernard Onigah, a representative of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), be withdrawn from the ongoing coroner’s inquest.

Sylvester Oromoni Snr, the deceased’s father, said this in a statement he signed on Sunday.

The coroner’s inquest aims to unravel the circumstances that led to the death of Sylvester Oromoni Jnr, a 12-year-old student of Dowen College Lagos.

“We, the members of the Oromoni family, hereby urged the leadership of the NBA to immediately withdraw its representative, Bernard Onigah, from the coroner, in order to assist in making the court draw conclusions based on findings and present its report appropriately,” the statement read.

“I wish to state categorically that failure of NBA leadership to withdraw Bernard Onigah from the Panel after this passionate appeal would be interpreted as complicity on the part of its leadership to continue to frustrate the court proceedings through its representative who had been causing confusion and dragging the court back.”

Mr Onigah is the secretary of, the National Human Rights Committee at the NBA.

Mr Oromoni said the NBA representative has been “frustrating” the court proceedings.

He added that the NBA role ought to be an observatory but the body has assumed the role of a defence lawyer in the hearing “by raising issues that tend to frustrate proceedings, in order to buy time before the coroner.”

Contacted for reaction, NBA’s national publicity secretary, Rapulu Nduka, did not respond to calls or text messages to his known contact.