The inquest instituted by Governor Rauf Aregbesola of Osun State to probe what led to the death of Senator Isiaka Adeleke on Tuesday ruled that drug overdose was responsible for the death of the politician.
Senator Adeleke’s death had sparked violent protests by his supporters with allegations that he was poisoned emerging in the days after his death.
The protests and suspicion of foul play by his family led the state government to set up the inquest.
In his verdict after about three weeks of investigations, the coroner, Mr. Olusegun Ayilara said the autopsy and toxicology reports showed there were no traces of poison in Adeleke’s body when he died on April 23, 2017.
He ruled out poison as the cause of death, saying no traces of it were found in the deceased’s system according to the autopsy and toxicologist reports.
“The high dose of sedatives and analgesics with the mode of administration caused aspiration which culminated in death,” Ayilara said.
The coroner had summoned 15 witnesses including the nurse that treated Adeleke shortly before he died, Mr. Alfred Aderibigbe.
The pathologist, who carried out the autopsy on the corpse of the late politician, Dr. Taiwo Solaja, as well as the Chief Medical Director of Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, LAUTECH Teaching Hospital, Prof. Akeem Lasisi, also testified.
Although the siblings of the deceased were summoned by the coroner, they said they would neither participate in the inquest nor support what they called kangaroo inquest.
Members of the late Senator’s family alleged that the state government had a predetermined report and they just instituted the panel to arrive at that report which would favour them.
They also accused the Chief Medical Director of LAUTECH Teaching Hospital
in Osogbo, Prof. Akeem Lasisi, of refusing to give them a copy of the autopsy and toxicology report.