Police in Lagos yesterday said the autopsy report conducted by the Department of Pathology and Forensic medicine, Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH), on the death of Mrs. Ronke Shonde indicted her detained husband, Lekan.
The state Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Dolapo Badmos, who disclosed this, said Shonde would be arraigned today. According to her, Shonde would be arraigned before the Chief Magistrates’ Court, Yaba.
She said: “The autopsy has revealed that Mr. Lekan Shonde, the alleged killer of his wife has a case to answer. He will be charged to court tomorrow (today) to answer a case of murder.” Earlier, the Head of Department of Pathology and Forensic medicine, Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH), Dr Shoyemi, condemned media reports quoting autopsy report attributing Ronke’s death to ‘respiratory seizure’.
Ronke was allegedly killed by the husband, Lekan Shonde, a fortnight ago at their Egbeda home in Lagos. The pathologist told our correspondent that the department was embarrassed by the media reports saying Ronke’s death was caused “respiratory seizure and water log in the head”.
He said: “I am a civil servant and not permitted to speak to you. But we are embarrassed on what we read this morning (yesterday). The reports are baseless and mischievous. There is nothing like respiratory seizure or water in the head. If this interpretation is true, then it means she died of convulsion. Respiratory seizure in medical terms refers to convulsion.
That is not what we submitted.” Shoyemi said the autopsy report had been duly completed and forwarded to the Corona, the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) and the Lagos Police Command. He added: “It is only logical for the police to release it, but that (what the media reported) is not what we submitted.
The full post-mortem has been handed over to them (Corona, DPP and the police).” A Family Physician and First Vice Chairman of the Association of General Private Medical Practitioners of Nigeria (AGPMPN), Dr. Shehu Akintade, said respiratory seizure was purely pathological finding got after the death of a person.
According to him, seizures are akin to those that can happen in the brain. Akintade likened seizure to electrical discharge that could happen in the brain.
He said: “Seizure must have been caused as a result of the compromise of the person’s respiration either because that person has deficiency of oxygen or excess of carbon monoxide, all of which can be a problem for the brain. This is because the brain cannot be deprived of oxygen. “There could be respiratory seizure as a pathological diagnosis when somebody dies from asthma which is also a respiratory problem.”
