The administration of the National Medical Services Laboratories in the United States has denied claims by the Lagos State Government that a toxicology test was conducted at its facility to determine the cause of late singer Mohbad’s death.
The NMS Labs made the assertion in response to questions posed by a PUNCH correspondent, who started an investigation to determine the musician’s cause of death.
Prior to starting the investigation, some worried citizens allegedly demonstrated against a pathologist’s assertion that Mohbad’s cause of death could not be determined by autopsy because his corpse had decomposed. The pathologist made this claim on Wednesday, May 15, when he appeared before the Coroner’s Court.
In November 2023, O. Akinde, the state government’s attorney, informed the Coroner’s Court in the state’s Ikorodu area that a toxicology test—a component of an autopsy meant to ascertain Mohbad’s cause of death, had been carried out in the United States.
Supporting this assertion, the state’s Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Gbenga Omotoso, stated that the toxicology test was being carried out at the NMS Labs in Pennsylvania, USA, in response to questions during a live phone conversation with Ahmad Isah, the host of the online program Brekete Family, which is based in Abuja, sometime in February 2024.
He said: “The matter is being handled by the state DNA and Forensic Centre, but they are doing skeletal services, and they have affiliate centres which are three.
“So, if there is an emergency like this one that we have, they will not say they cannot handle it. So, there are three of them in the US and the one handling this particular one is the NMS in Pennsylvania, USA,” Omotoso said during the live programme.
The Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, stated in December 2023 that a toxicology test was conducted outside of Nigeria due to a lack of facility to ascertain Mohbad’s cause of death.
The governor made this statement in response to a journalist’s inquiry about the protracted delay in wrapping up the investigation into Mohbad’s murder at a town hall gathering in Lagos.
Sanwo-Olu claimed that during the 2020 #EndSARS demonstration, a crowd attack destroyed the state’s only forensic facility.
Source: www.mynigeria.com
