Activists examine the pros and cons of Lagos Coroner law

The convergence was an appraisal of sort as key guest speakers and discussants alike took a closer look at the awareness level, the functionality or otherwise of the law as enacted as well as the gains and pain in its implementation.Kick-starting the deliberation, Okechukwu Nwanguma, the National Coordinator of NOPRIN Foun-dation said as a group, […]

The convergence was an appraisal of sort as key guest speakers and discussants alike took a closer look at the awareness level, the functionality or otherwise of the law as enacted as well as the gains and pain in its implementation.
Kick-starting the deliberation, Okechukwu Nwanguma, the National Coordinator of NOPRIN Foun-dation said as a group, their objective was to contribute to reduction and ensuring justice for extra-judicial
killings in Nigeria. According to him the Lagos state coroner law has a connection to the group’s objective because prior to this time, many cases of extra-judicial killings have gone uninvestigated and unpunished.
“The families of the victims usually have no recourse to justice or redress. Many do not even get to find out what exactly happened to their loved ones because coroner inquests into these and other unnatural deaths are rarely carried out. Thus, seven years after the review and application of the Coroner law in Lagos state, there is need to ascertain how many cases in which inquests have been carried out and how far the outcomes have helped the cause of justice for the victim’s families,” Nwanguma said.
To have proper assessment of the situation as Nwanguma had noted, NOPRIN Foundation said it launched a survey exercise between January and March 2014. The research exercise which was carried out by Independent Research International (IRI) was said to have involved a total of 164 respondents which include doctors and pathologist, police officials, mortuary attendants, lawyers, Civil Society Organizations and media as well as victim families and the public.
A member of the researching team, Anthony Ohaegbu said his team was very diligent in the data collation approach, using all available data gathering and analysis tools which also include the use of Statistical Package for the Social Science (SPSS),   a software package used for statistical analysis.
At the end, IRI report was able to come up with the conclusions: whereas 79 percent of doctors and pathologist are aware of the law, it was only 30 percent of the media practitioners and 12 percent of the Civil rights organizations are aware of the coroner law.
However, 58 percent of lawyers also confirmed their awareness of the law.
On major causes of unnatural death, the study revealed that 52 percent of doctors and pathologists identified road accident as a major factor, while 14 others aligned with gunshots wounds. Interestingly, 44 percent of Police respondents attributed causes of unnatural death to road accidents with six percent claiming accidental discharge.
Asked if the law has been effectively applied to help the cause of justice, while 42 percent of doctors and pathologists said the law had contributed a lot in enhancing accountability for extra judicial killings, only 29 percent of lawyers, rights groups and media practitioners agreed that it has helped a lot.
Indeed 34 percent said it has helped a little. Thirty five percent of the police officers also believed that the law has increased victim access to justice.
On whether there is prosecution or correctional sanction against culprits, 50 percent of the police agreed that the law has actually assisted in prosecuting alleged offenders. However, 45 percent of police officers claimed that it was few police officers that have so far been disciplined on issues relating to wrongful killings while 40 percent differed, insisting that many of the culpable officers have been disciplined.
Instructively, 38 percent of the police officers sampled think the law has been effective even as it has succeeded in reducing cases of unnatural deaths, 31 percent however said the law has increased number of reported cases, with 23 percent saying it has improved police efficiency  and effectiveness. Forty two percent of the doctors and pathologists on the other hand said frequency of preventable deaths since the passage is now on average.
On obstacles to a more effective application of the law, 40 of the doctors and pathologists identified ignorance of the law, while 47 percent said it is actually due to poor funding.  However, 40 percent others align with the notion that it is due to poor facilities. For lawyers, rights groups and media practitioners, 38 percent said poor
facilities is the main challenge in speedy conclusion of coroner inquest while 29 percent alleged that poor funding is the biggest challenge.
When asked on measures needed to overcome challenges in carrying out speedy inquest, 43 percent of doctors and pathologists said better training while 31 percent identified training and education of stakeholders. On the other hand, 29 percent of lawyers, right groups and media practitioners called for adequate funding, 26 percent identified improved facilities, while only 24 percent settled for training and education while 13 percent asked for stricter law.
In his keynote address, the guest speaker, Leonard Idibia who is also the Director of Programmes, Access to Justice, said although there is still “a huge hiatus between the quantum of accountability over incidences of questionable deaths and the existence and operation of the law”, there still exits justifiable and creditable grounds (in term of performance assessment) to depart from the common regressive attitude of always looking at things from the “worse-case scenario syndrome”.
Speaking on some of the challenges involved in getting effective implementation of the coroner law, Idibia said the list include low literacy levels and pervasive ignorance among the populace, low sense of public interest, apathy and fear of police reprisals and religious prejudice, among others.
“Our level of public spiritedness or public is very low and weak. Relatives of persons who die in suspect circumstances would rather spend resources on a lavish funeral expenses than spending a little fraction of that money to pay for professional services like incisive autopsy and prosecution inquests. Not more than 0.1 percent of our citizenry respond to their civic duties of reporting the presence of dead bodies on the streets to appropriate authorities as required by the Coroner Law,” Idibia said.
The guest lecturer also took time out to examine the merits of the 2007 coroner law. He said more than anything, the law as enacted by the state assembly has helped in liberalizing public access to the coroner court, suspension of evidentiary rules of procedures, providing an independent and alternative system of inquiry as well as combating hidden cases of medical negligence.
Idibia also noted that another major merit of the Coroner Law was its ability to give birth celebrated cases such as Alagomeji inquest, Tunde Adedeji inquest, Samson Adeleke inquest, Modebayo Awosika inquest, Abibat Kausarat inquest, the Dangote accident inquest, Malanido inquest, Dana aircrash, Associated airline crash and Azeez Omotosho inquest.
In order to strengthen the implementation of the Coroner law, Idibia said there is need for the state government to put in place awareness programmes, need for increased state involvement in inquests, enhancing speed of inquest through administrative reform of the system and structure, simplifying coroner inquest processes by specific rules of procedure for inquest proceedings and improving autopsy system and practices.