In Nigeria, several thousands (I dare say, probably millions) of deaths result from unnatural causes. Natural causes of death are such as old age in the elderly or severe recognizable diseases in the young. Such deaths such as resulting from assault, battery be it by gun shot, beatings as in child and domestic abuse of spouse, burning of a person (“jungle justice”), rape, denial of food and or poisoning are extra-judicial murders and unnatural causes of death. Unnatural causes may be an accident due to negligence of another party. Unnatural cause of death may even be suicide— act of killing oneself (see later in the series when we shall deal with suicide). It’s the duty of a coroner to determine the cause of such death.
A coroner is a person whose typical duty is to confirm and certify the death of an individual within a particular jurisdiction. Coroner case is simply put, certification of a death. In doing so a coroner performs the following functions which I want to suggest, you should take a good note of:
Duties and responsibilities of the coroner may include overseeing the examination and certification of deaths related to such events as mass disasters that occur within the coroner’s jurisdiction (area of legal authority). A coroner may also conduct or order an inquest into the manner or cause of death, and investigate or confirm the identity of an unknown person who has been found dead within the coroner’s jurisdiction. A coroner’s office characteristically maintains records of death of those who have died within the coroner’s area of legal authority.
Depending on the jurisdiction, the coroner may decide the cause of death personally, or he or she may act as the presiding officer of a special court (a “coroner’s jury”) set up for this purpose. The additional roles that a coroner may oversee in judicial investigations may be subject to the attainment of suitable legal and medical qualifications.
The Law in Nigeria:
It was in 1944, that the first law on coroner autopsies was first established in Nigeria. The law stated and mandated that only sudden deaths that involve non-natives (then white colonists as you can imagine) were to be reported to the coroner. However, by 1958 (on the eve of Nigeria’s Independence) the law was extended to involve all individuals in Nigeria.
Under section 4(1) of the coroners law Cap 131 of 1954, laws of the Federation of Nigeria and Lagos, magistrates are then permitted to conduct inquests under the said law. This law states that every magistrate is authorized to hold inquests about any doubtful death in his or her area of jurisdiction. Coroner autopsies are done when a clinician is legally not in a position to issue a death certificate. Based on cause of death, coroner deaths can be classified thus: natural deaths, accidents, homicides, suicides and undetermined on the basis of manner of death classification. Reports to the coroner about such deaths originate through reports by complaints to the police, reports by health practitioners to the coroner or the police and so forth.
Law of Lagos State on Coroner: In 2007, the Lagos State Government promulgated The Coroner’s System Law that established a new system of investigation of death in the State. The Law is to be cited as Coroner Law. Part 2, Section 4 of the said law empower the coroner to hold inquest on suspicious deaths that comes to his or her knowledge. Such death can be due to any cause that is doubtful such as violence and sudden death including death in psychiatry hospital. Prisoners who died are subject to inquest. This law empowers the coroner to even exhume a person who had been buried for proper determination of the cause of death. Coroner may even postpone cremation or postpone a burial under this law by virtue of Section 9 of the Act.
As you can see, claiming a religious barrier (which is a major obstacle to coroner law enforcement in Nigeria) to inquest or citing a custom or tradition (such as burial of a chief, obas, obis etc) that allegedly forbid medical examination of the dead is not acceptable under the law. Anyone and everyone can be made subject to coroner examination to determine the cause of death. However, either due to natural cause or not, you or relevant person concerned can request an autopsy of the dead.
Your Duty: Under the law, you have a duty. Section 10 of Coroner Law of Lagos State empowered you as follows: “When anybody is found or a person has died in such circumstances as to make the holding of an inquest under this Law necessary or desirable it shall be the duty of any person finding the body or becoming aware of the death forthwith to inform the nearest police officer and upon receiving any such information such police officer shall notify the coroner having jurisdiction to hold an inquest.”
Benefits of Coroner Inquest and Autopsy. Our society and country continue to suffer from shady deaths and grief from suspicious deaths. You can prevent future deaths by requesting for a coroner inquest. In the barest minimum, you can request for an autopsy of a death person that you are concerned about whose death you suspect is a foul play.
The benefits of autopsy is huge. In the least, a disease that runs in the family may be exposed to help prevent such death occurring in the family or occurring in the children of the dead. If the cause of death is of public interest such as infection, the public and government may bring preventive measures into place to protect the living. Our society is rife with superstitions and false claims of evil forces of witchcraft killing another while in reality, the dead may have been chronically ill of a serious disease. Autopsy and inquest may bring such undue false claims to an end and establish a clear material medical truths. Further, doctors, lawyers, and academics learn from autopsy to help the living avoid early deaths. You too can help by taking autopsy or coroner inquests seriously. Next week, we shall examine other areas of Forensic Medicine of interest when we will take a look at personal injury.
