Mr. Idowu Owohunwa, the Commissioner of Police for Lagos State, officially formed a 13-person Special Investigation Team yesterday. Their primary task is to uncover the circumstances surrounding the untimely death of Nigerian singer and former protege of Naira Marley, Ilerioluwa Aloba, widely recognised as Mohbad, on September 12th, in Lagos.
In a show of solidarity, Nigerian celebrities and saddened Mohbad fans stormed the streets, calling for justice for the deceased artist.
Commencing from Akure, Ondo State, yesterday, the protests are slated to proliferate to various states across the nation.
As for the team headed by Assistant Commissioner of Police Saheed Kassim, it is set to undertake a range of tasks, including the exhumation of Mohbad’s remains and the subsequent autopsy, as well as the conduction of toxicology and histology tests, all as specified by Owohunwa.
Owohunwa, speaking at the Special Investigation Team’s inauguration, indicated that the team members would be headquartered at the Homicide unit within the State Criminal Investigation Department. He further elaborated that the team had been segmented into four specialised subgroups, covering aspects such as forensics, technology, medical, and practical investigations.
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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.’