Ademoye Adewale, a cotton candy vendor who sold snacks to Chrisland Schools Opebi students at Agege Stadium in Lagos during the school’s recent sporting events, informed the coroner appointed to determine Whitney Adeniran’s cause of death on Monday that the autopsy performed by the Lagos State Government was incorrect.
He asserted that contrary to what the autopsy report claimed, Whitney did not pass away from electrocution.
At the Ikeja Magistrates’ Court in Ogba, Adewale said that he creates Shawarma, Candy Floss, Popcorn, and Barbecue upon request. He made this claim in front of Magistrate Olanike Fajana.
According to the post-mortem findings, Whitney died from asphyxia and electrocution, the state authorities had previously reported.
The Lagos State University Teaching Hospital provided the report, which was dated March 1, 2023.
The 12-year-old student apparently collapsed and passed away on February 9 at the Agege Stadium during the school’s interhouse competitions.
Adewale said the coroner at the case’s resumed hearing on Monday that the school administration had prevented him from selling Shawarma and Candy Floss at the pool on the day of the incident.
The witness, who was subjected to cross-examination by the late person’s family attorney, Mr. Femi Falana SAN, claimed to be an independent seller at Agege Stadium, where he had registered in order to operate his business.
Adewale informed Magistrate Fajana that he had registered his company in February 2013 and had been regularly present at the stadium. When Chrisland School came to inspect the stadium, they noticed him and took a liking to him.
Adewale claimed that at all of the events where he had sold snacks, he had never had a machine electrocute him.
He claimed that he did not see the deceased when she fell, but that he did witness students and teachers swarming around the student on the ground.
“When I went to check what was happening, I saw teachers and pupils surrounding her and I asked what happened, they said she slumped,” he explained.
He added, “To the best of my observation, the deceased did not die of electrocution. There was no naked wire, the autopsy was erroneous and from where the deceased was, it was 5cm from where my machine was and it was unplugged.
“I don’t know if the deceased died of electrocution. Other organisations have conducted tests and there was nothing like electrocution”.
The case was again postponed to May 22 so that the hearing may continue.
