Lagos State Police Commissioner, Mr. Idowu Owohunwa, yesterday, inaugurated a 13-man Special Investigation Team to unravel the circumstances surrounding the death of Nigerian singer and Naira Marley’s former protege, Ilerioluwa Aloba, popularly called Mohbad, on September 12, in Lagos.
This comes as Nigerian celebrities and angry Mohbad fans took to the streets early this morning to demand justice for the late singer.
The protests, which began yesterday in Akure, Ondo State, are anticipated to spread to other states.
Meanwhile, the team led by Assistant Commissioner of Police Saheed Kassim is slated to exhume Mohbad’s remains, perform an autopsy, and conduct toxicology and histological tests on it, according to Owohunwa.
Speaking at the inauguration of the Special Investigation Team, Owohunwa said its members would be domiciled at the Homicide section of the State Criminal Investigation Department, adding that the team was divided into four sub teams to take care of specific areas such as forensic, technical, medical and practical investigations.
Noting that the command was undertaking these steps in the overriding public interest and justice, the command boss said: “The team will engage in the exhumation, autopsy, visit to the crime scenes, hospitals and past records that might be vital towards establishing the facts in relation to the case on that investigation.
“In this regard, we do appreciate that a homicide investigation of this case would be complex and technical. But we draw confidence in the fact that Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos State has assured that he would give whatever support we might need from the state to aid our drive for justice and for a very conclusive and professionally delivered investigation process.”
CP Owohunwa further highlighted the team’s terms of reference to include: “First, to aggregate all allegations, suspicions, insinuations from all sources, in the cause of interaction with the family, friends and the medical components, with a view to establishing facts, identify pieces of vital evidence that may support criminal investigation.
“Two, to deploy all forensic, technical and other vital assets that are relevant to the investigation of homicide cases of this nature towards supporting the investigation process.
“Three, to identify all actors. All elements that might be remotely or directly connected to the allegations that we are investigating. And this of course, I must emphasize includes witnesses.