Rosemary Oromoni, the mother of Sylvester Oromoni, the deceased school student who was the subject of a high-profile bullying case at Dowen College in Lagos, is dead. A family source, quoted by TheCable, said she passed away in late November after an intermittent blood pressure-related illness. Struck with trauma since his son’s controversial death and failure to get justice, Rosemary lost the battle to stay alive a little over seven months after a special court in Lagos ruled against her family back in April.
Sylvester Oromoni controversially died on November 30, 2021, while still a student at Dowen College in Lekki Lagos. His parents alleged that the 12-year old was bullied, beaten up, and fed a chemical substance by five of his male colleagues.
Dowen College dismissed the claim, alleging that the late student only sustained injuries while playing football with his friends.
In January 2022, an initial autopsy revealed that Oromoni Junior died of “acute lung injury due to chemical intoxication”. The Lagos department of public prosecution (DPP) then conducted a second autopsy which ruled that Oromoni died “naturally”. Sylvester was buried on January 27, 2024, after the bereaved family opted to keep his corpse in the morgue in protest.
In April 2024, Mikhail Kadiri, the judge who presided over the coroner’s court, ruled that Oromoni died of sepsis emanating from an infection of the lungs and kidney caused by an ankle injury.
Among the defendants of the case are the five accused teenage schoolboys of Dowen College; Favour Benjamin, Micheal Kashamu, Edward Begue, Ansel Temile, and Kenneth Inyang. All five boys were cleared and released from the juvenile home in 2022.