It was a shocking revelation when Lagos State Chief pathologist, Professor Oladapo Obafunwa appeared as a witness at an Ikeja High Court to disclose that he discovered more than 76 stab wounds on the body of the late Skye Bank staff, Mrs. Titilayo Omozoje, who was allegedly murdered by her husband, Akolade Arowolo in 2011. Led in evidence by his counsel, Mrs. Olabisi Ogungbesan ( Lagos State Director of Public Prosecution, DPP ), Professor Obafunwa who doubles as the Vice-Chancellor of the Lagos State University, LASU, revealed that during the autopsy on the late banker, he discovered that “ a minimum of 76 stab wounds were inflicted on her body, including injuries on the face, chest, left and right upper limbs.”
According to him, although Late Titilayo’s decaying remains were identified on July 4, 2011, but the autopsy which he conducted on July 6, took him more than five hours to confirm the result of her death, he added that during his internal examination of the body, he found “various wounds consistent with wounds from sharp weapon with a single edge blade as well as a double edge blade. Which affected the left eye, right eye, upper chest area, right chest and collar bone left armpit. It also included a 10 x 5cm rectangular area that has multiple individual injuries on the left side of her chest and breast over lying the heart,” he said. Obafunwa who gave graphic account of his observations through slides of still images that was burn on a Compact Disc stated that the autopsy revealed a gaping wound which was “revealed as a black hole in the chest region.” Some of the still pictures showed deep cuts on the “stomach wall” after the inside of the stomach was pushed to a side to allow for the autopsy. He further said the forensic investigations revealed that the deep cuts on Titi’s body could not have been self inflicted because of the deep penetration from her chest to the back and there were stab wounds to the stomach wall. “The chest wall was lost due to multiple stab wounds, there was a damage to the diaphragm, left side of the liver, breast area and repeated stab wounds to the lungs and intestines”. Summing up the results of the autopsy, he concluded that “her death was caused by multiple injuries in the chest and abdomen due to multiple sharp wounds and long forced trauma”. Revealing more of his findings on the body of the accused person, who is also the deceased husband, the pathologist said that there were wounds on his hand and abdomen and he also had a “limping gait which he admitted may be because he jumped to the ground from the fourth floor of his apartment”. He maintained that the 12 injuries he examined on him were not penetrating but superficial, adding that the two of them might fall into the category of defence wounds though not all the injuries fall into the time frame the incident.
Responding to the findings of the Pathologist, the counsel to the accused, Olanrewaju Ajanaku, during cross-examinations claimed that it was Professor Obafunwa that inflicted new stab wounds on the deceased when the corpse was in his custody, which was denied by the witness. After listening to both parties, Justice Lateefa Okunnu adjourned the suit to October 22, 2012, for the prosecution witness to present its last witness.
Comments