Police in Lagos on Saturday said no formal report of the death of Sylvester Oromoni, a student of Dowen College, Lekki, was made.
Oromoni’s parents say their son was attacked by a group of senior students for refusing to join a cult, but the school denied the claims.
TheCable had reported that it learnt the family petitioned the Lagos commissioner of police Hakeem Odumosu on December 2 over the incident and is planning to also write the inspector-general of police (IGP) on December 6 for a full-scale probe.
However, spokesman of the police in Lagos Adekunle Ajisebutu said in a statement that Mr Odumosu acted on hearing the news.
He said, “The Command wishes to inform the public that, although no formal report of the incident was made to the police, the Commissioner of Police, upon hearing about it instantly directed the Divisional Police Officer, Maroko Division under whose jurisdiction the place of incident is to immediately visit the school to carry out initial investigation into the incident.
“This directive has been carried out as investigation into the case has since commenced. However, in view of the seriousness of the case, the Homicide Section of the State Criminal Investigation Department, Panti, has also been directed to take over investigation of the case immediately.
“Members of the public, particularly the deceased’s bereaved parents, friends and relatives, are assured that the Lagos State Police Command has deployed all available human and material resources at its disposal to unravel the circumstances surrounding the sad and unfortunate incident.”
Mr Ajisebutu said that in the course of investigation, members of the public should refrain from taking the law into their own hands and also avoid comments that could jeopardise investigation.
He added that Odumosu, while commiserating with the bereaved family, also assured that the outcome of police investigation would be made public in due course.
