Ten months after the late singer Ilerioluwa Aloba, known as Mohbad died, a Magistrate Court has granted the family to conduct a second autopsy.
Mohbad, 27, died on 12 September 2023 under controversial circumstances.
This decision by the court to grant the family request comes after the family expressed dissatisfaction with the initial autopsy results, which were deemed inconclusive.
After several clamours for justice to ascertain the cause of his death, his body was exhumed on 21 September 2023 for an autopsy by the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH).
The autopsy, which commenced in September 2023, released on 7 June, failed to determine the cause of death.
The inconclusiveness of the autopsy results was attributed to body decomposition and potential reactions to medications he received before his death.
The Aloba family rejected the results and, on 16 June, urged the Lagos State Government to confirm the autopsy’s authenticity because of the public’s doubts and conflicting reports.
Mohbad’s family appealed to the coroner’s inquest’s presiding magistrate to ensure that an independent toxicology report is submitted to the court before the final report is submitted to the authorities.
The coroner’s inquest, whose role is to determine the identity of the deceased, the time, cause, and manner of death, has so far revealed that the first autopsy provided no conclusive cause of death.
During a Wednesday hearing at a magistrate court in Ikorodu, Mohad’s family and their legal representatives were granted permission for a second autopsy,
However, the family and their legal team confirmed they received the court’s authorisation to proceed with the additional autopsy.
The Aloba family has been vocal about their dissatisfaction with the initial findings of the autopsy and has demanded an independent post-mortem and toxicology test.
Recall that the first autopsy, conducted with the state government’s involvement, did not yield affirmative results.
They questioned the authenticity of the toxicology test, allegedly conducted in the United States, which the US lab later denied.
Now, the family has been granted permission to conduct a private independent autopsy.
At a press conference on Wednesday, Mohbad’s father, Joseph Aloba, expressed gratitude for the court’s decision to allow for a second autopsy.
“I appreciate the responses all along to the death of Mohbad. We appreciate the judiciary for this decision. There is a reason for the government to instruct that we exhume Mohbad for them to know the cause of his death.”
At the court hearing, the singer’s father expressed shock at seeing his daughter-in-law Wunmi and his estranged wife (Mohnad’s mum).
He said: “It was sad seeing the mother and the wife because we haven’t been communicating for some days; it was like a shock.”
Asked when the results of this second autopsy would be ready, Grace Shorinde, one of the Aloba family representatives, responded, “If we consider today’s coroner inquest, we are already time-bound”.
“Whatever we do, we must have the results before 7 August. After concluding the coroner’s inquest, the legal team approached Joseph Aloba, who emphasised the urgency of acting on the received information.
“Those who were advocating for the boy’s burial now understand that Mohbad cannot be buried until the cause of death is determined, which must happen between now and 7 August,” she affirmed.
