Dr Taiwo Sholaja, the pathologist who carried out the autopsy on late Sen. Isiaka Adeleke, on Friday said the postmortem he carried out was authorised by the police coroner and not Adeleke’s family as being claimed in some quarters.
Sholaja made this known at the coroner inquest in Osogbo while being led in testimony by LAUTECH University Teaching Hospital Senior Legal Officer, Mrs Oyindamola Daramola, and Mr Bashir Ajibola, a legal practitioner and observer at the hearings.
The pathologist said he received a form order for a postmortem to be carried out on late Adeleke which was signed by Police Coroner, Ajiboye Dorcas Olubunmi, on April 23.
He said another form relating to the particulars of the deceased was also given to him by the Police Division, Dugbe, Osogbo, for him to provide the force with findings of his examination.
He said at no point was he authorised by the Adeleke family to carry out autopsy on the late senator.
Sholaja said as a professional, it was imperative that he submitted the result of the autopsy to the coroner or police and no other person.
He stressed that when the forms for the conduct of the autopsy was served on him, members of the Adeleke family were aware and they understood that it was the police that authorised the procedure.
Sholaja later provided the coroner inquest with copies of the results of the autopsy he conducted as exhibits and in compliance with the instruction of the court when he first appeared before it on Tuesday.
Also giving additional testimony, SP Eleta Moses, the Officer-in-Charge of Homicide in the Criminal Investigation Division (CID), said the results of the autopsy were submitted to the police on completion.
Moses said all the empty ampoules and injections given to the deceased and the statement of the nurse were all in police custody.
He equally confirmed that the police forensic scientist, DSP Benedict Agboh, conducted toxicology test on the samples taken from the deceased and tendered the result.
The autopsy result, he said, was ordered to help the police complete their investigation on the matter while the result had been filed and sent to the Ministry of Justice to obtain legal advice.
The Coroner, Chief Magistrate Olusegun Ayilara, admitted all the reports brought as exhibits and adjourned sitting till Monday.
The Adeleke family had addressed newsmen on Tuesday, claiming that it was yet to receive the result of the autopsy it requested the teaching hospital to conduct.(NAN)
ID/OJO