Alleged murder: Court fixes March 29 to rule on order compelling police to release report

Justice Baba Idris of an FCT High Court in Nyanya, on Friday fixed March 29 for ruling on an order compelling the police to release an investigation report into the alleged murder of one Helen Okoro.

The deceased was allegedly murdered on Dec. 30, 2017 at her village in Abia.

The suspect is yet to be arraigned in court and the police is also yet to release the investigation file to the attorney-general of Abia.

The applicant, Mrs Blessing Ephraim, daughter of the deceased on Nov. 8, 2018, through Mr Maxwell Okpara, her counsel,filed a suit against the Inspector-General of Police.

The appellant sought the order of the court for an order of mandamus, compelling the police to release the investigation file on the murder.

Okpara also said there were contradictions in the autopsy report carried out by the police.

Idris adjourned for ruling on the order of mandamus after listening to the two doctors who carried out the autopsy on the deceased.

Earlier, Doctor Onyemauchechi Gbujie was called by the applicant, to give oral evidence on the autopsy on the decesaed which he reviewed.

Gbujie, a chief consultant at the University of Abuja Teaching Hospital told the court he was the one who reviewed the autopsy based on the medical records from the Mercy Catholic Hospital, Arochukwu were the deceased died.

He also told the court that he clinically reviewed some pictures of the deceased when she was healthy.

The doctor told the court that he was a surgeon and specialises in ear, nose and throat -head and neck diseases.

He added that though, he was not a pathologist, but a pathologist report was used in conjunction with a clinical data to arrive at a result of an autopsy.

When asked by the defendant’s counsel, Mr Matthew Omosun if he saw the corpse, Gbujie said no.

”In today’s medical practice, clinical pictures are used as an alternative to the physical present of the patient, hence what is known as ‘Tele medicine’.

”I did not dispute the findings of the pathologist, because I was not there but I dispute the conclusions arrived at, I pointed out some omissions that ought to be there but were not,” Gbujie said.

He further told the court that he was interested in ensuring that justice was not miscarried, but to help the court unravel the truth.

Dr Wilson Akhiwu, officer in charge of pathology unit of the Nigerian Police, was brought by the defendant’s counsel Omosun as the pathologist who carried out the autopsy on the deceased.

In his evidence in chief, he told the court that he was served a coroner paper on Feb. 2, 2019 in General Hospital Uzoakoli, Abia were a body identified as that of one Mrs Helen Okoro was shown to him.

He said the body was not properly preserved, it was moderately decomposed, the injuries identified was due to marks of medical intervention.

“When I opened the body, the vascular system was bad, the heart mildly enlarged evidence of heart attack, the injuries are mild and I would not attribute the cause of death to that,” he said.

He, however, replied no, when asked by Okpara if he got the full medical reports of the deceased from the hospital where the deceased died.

The pathologist said he was not provided with such reports and did not visit the hospital either.

”I did an autopsy as provided by the coroner. So, I did not rely on any document provided by anybody and I knew the deceased was hypertensive, because I examined the heart and the blood vessels

“You don’t depend on any document to carry out an autopsy,” he said.