The family of Ilerioluwa Aloba, the late Nigerian singer, who was better known as Mohbad, has said it will conduct separate autopsy test on the late singer.
Mohbad, 27, died on September 12, 2023. He was buried the next day in Ikorodu, Lagos.
The Lagos state government had called for a coroner’s inquest to determine the cause of death following public outcry.
Testifying at the coroner’s inquest on Wednesday, Richard Somiari, the director of Lagos State DNA and Forensic Centre, said the autopsy result on Mohbad would be ready in less than a month.
However, according to PUNCH, Monisola Odumosu, head of the family’s legal counsel, said the family will apply to the state high court to conduct a separate autopsy and toxicology test.
The lawyer said the family of Mohbad feels the test being conducted by the Lagos government is “taking time” and also expresses concerns about the process by which the autopsy was conducted.
Odumosu further claimed that no medical expert represented the family at the point the autopsy was done.
“We filed an application at the Coroner’s Court on Wednesday to conduct our own autopsy and toxicology test, but the Magistrate said he did not have the power to approve that and told us to approach the High Court,” he said.
“We are already preparing our documents to go to the High Court so that we can ask for permission to organise our own autopsy and toxicology test. We have been planning this before now because we feel the government is too slow.
“They disclosed on a radio programme about three weeks ago that they were just about to send it to the US and that may take about 10 to 12 months, which is too long considering the fact that they had taken a sample from the body almost five months earlier. So why do we have to wait for so long?
“Secondly, when the autopsy was being conducted, representatives of the family should have been someone who is well-informed on the issue of the autopsy; an expert who would confirm if it was properly done. But they just called anyone.
“We are also planning to do it in the United States. Another reason why we took the decision was because, for instance, if someone is poisoned, at a point in time, it will evaporate, and no test can discover it. So, we don’t want to wait until that has happened before we think of doing our test and discover that nothing was found.”
