Cynthia Osokogu is still lying at the morgue a week
after the Lagos State Police Command reportedly informed her family to come for
her body.
Following the completion of a postmortem examination on
the deceased, who was killed in Lagos by her social media friends on July 22,
the command said that her family was yet to show up.
It was gathered that Professor John Obafunwa, Chief
pathologist at the State University Teaching Hospital, LASUTH, had submitted
the autopsy report to the police since last Friday, September 14.
Though the report is yet to be made public, it was
gathered from a source at TOS Funerals, a private morgue where the
autopsy was done, that she might have died of asphyxia respiratory paralysis,
as a result of suffocation.
Cynthia's burial, which was earlier slated for
September 8, 2012, was postponed indefinitely after a delay occasioned by the
autopsy.
A police source however, absolved the police of any
blame that Cynthia's corpse continued to remain at the morgue.
Ngozi Braide, command spokesperson said the police had
been "talking with her parents on the need to come and pick her
corpse."
"The pathologist has submitted his report since
Friday last week, so we are waiting for her parents to come forward for the
collection,” she added.
In his reaction, Flt. Lt. Ken Osokogu speaking on
behalf of Cynthia's dad, General Frank Osokogu said, "The question of
abandonment does not arise in the first place. The police have not called the
family in respect to picking the corpse. The case is still at the Magistrate
level, magistrate is just a holding court, and cannot try murder. The second
hearing has been fixed for 3 October, during which we believe that the case
would be transfered to the High Court and afterwards the police can seek for
permission to release the corpse for burial. We are not in a haste to bury her
as justice must take its full course."
Cynthia Osokogu was killed by friends she met on the
social media at the Cosmilla Hotel in Festac Town, Lagos.
A funeral mass has been held for her, while her grave
has also reportedly been dug at her hometown in Delta state.