The issues surrounding the controversial death of the late singer, Ilerioluwa Aloba, aka Mohbad have taken a new twist as the management of the National Medical Services Laboratories in Pennsylvania, United States of America has denied conducting any toxicology test on the deceased.
This denial was in response to the earlier claim of the Lagos State Government which asserted that Mohbad’s body was flown to the medical facility in the US to determine the cause of his death and enquiries made by The PUNCH.
NMS Labs, in response to inquiries made by The PUNCH, said it did not have a case for Mohbad.
The Client Services Associate, Forensics Division, NMS Labs, Esther Dede said that Mohbad’s toxicology test was not conducted at any of their laboratories, refuting the claims made by the Lagos State Government.
“Unfortunately, we do not have a case for that patient,” Dede was quoted as saying by The PUNCH.
Dede continued: “To maintain our compliance with HIPAA privacy regulations, we would need authorisation from the submitting agency.”
Giving his reaction to the medical facility’s response, the Commissioner for Information, Mr Gbenga Omotoso, said that was the name of the laboratory given to him by the state DNA and Forensic Centre.
The commissioner said, “This was what I was told by the Lagos State DNA and Forensic Centre officials who took the sample there. We are dealing with the officials of the centre, they have three other labs that they have affiliations with. If they have an emergency, they can go to any of the three labs. I asked which particular one did they go to and they answered it was that one. That means I will have to go and check again because that was what I was told.”
Meanwhile, in December 2023, SaharaReporters reported how the Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu said that a toxicology test to determine the cause of death of music star was taken abroad because there was no facility to do it in Nigeria.
The governor said this at a town hall meeting held in Lagos while answering a question asked by a journalist regarding the prolonged delay in concluding the investigation into the death of Mohbad.
According to Sanwo-Olu, the state lost the only forensic facility to a mob attack during the #EndSARS protest in 2020.
The governor said, “Security is not about emotion, it’s serious business. I remember I met you three years ago. Like you said, there’s no emotion. I’m standing in front of you. There’s no emotion. It’s not emotional. We will do the job. We will do it well. These are police officers, the Mohbad case is still live. They’re treating it.
“We had to take the forensics out. The forensic (laboratory) that we built that is the best in sub-Sahara Africa was burned down during #EndSARS. We have to take the test out. They’ve done all their reports, not only when it comes back that we can tie the two together. There are people that are in detention as we speak; we have not released them.”
