Legal provisions for suspicious deaths

While no one wants to lose a relative or acquaintance to the cold hands of death, especially at a young age and in suspicious circumstances, this scenario is one of the things that humans have no control over and such are bound to happen.

But when such happens, does the law have any provision on how to handle such matters and what are the legal perspectives to such issues?

What legal steps should be taken when there is a suspicious death? Across Nigeria, particularly in Lagos State, there is a Coroners Law which is the legal framework set up to investigate the circumstances around a suspicious death by conducting a Coroner’s inquest, which is simply a fact-finding mission.

An inquest is held mandatorily under the law, when there is reasonable cause to believe that the cause of a death is unknown, sudden, unnatural or suspicious, due to various issues. And an inquest is commenced when certain steps have been taken; when there has been a report of a death by a relevant agency, when inquest is ordered by the Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice of a state or when any aggrieved person who identifies as an interested party writes to the Chief Coroner requesting an inquest.

The coroner is expected to do all that is necessary within the law to determine the cause of death by obtaining a medical report on the cause and manner of death as stated in the death certificate which is provided by the Chief Medical Examiner who is ordered to perform a post-mortem examination of the body and direct burial.

But when the body of a person who died in circumstances requiring the holding of an inquest has been buried without a post-mortem examination, the Coroner may order the exhumation of the corpse for examination and then order reburial.

And after receiving the medical report, the inquest procedure commences with the coroner summoning witnesses to appear in order to give evidence and produce any document that may help the coroner in the investigation of the suspicious death. Any witness who fails to appear or fails to answer any questions may have a fine imposed on him/her or be charged and punished with contempt of court.

Once inquest is completed, the coroner is to give a verdict which must show how, when and where the deceased person met his death. The verdict is to be forwarded to the Commissioner of Police, the Chief Coroner, the Chief Medical Examiner and the Divisional Police Officer for the district.

If there are sufficient grounds for making a charge against any person in connection with the death, the coroner shall make an order for the arrest of the suspect for investigation by the appropriate authority.

 

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