The coroner inquest which was set up to determine the cause of the sudden death of Osun State lawmaker, Isiaka Adeleke, has blamed the death on drug overdose administered on the deceased lawmaker by an unqualified nurse.
Delivering the verdict of the inquest, the coroner, Olusegun Ayilara, said the late lawmaker was not poisoned as is being rumoured in the state, adding that the result of an autopsy carried out on the body of Adeleke showed no trace of poison.
Ayilara said that on the day Adeleke died, some drug was intravenously administered on him by one Alfred Aderibigbe, a nurse, who according to the coroner had treated the deceased for several years without a doctor’s prescription.
The coroner also said that the consultant anatomic pathologist at the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, LAUTECH, teaching hospital, also confirmed that the deceased died due to drug overdose coupled with abnormally high level of alcohol.
Ayilara in his recommendations noted that the qualification of Aderibigbe, the nurse that administered the drugs on late Adeleke, should be further investigated by the police.
He also advised the State’s directorate of public prosecution to look further into the case file of Aderibigbe to know the appropriate charge, if any, to press against him.
Adeleke, a former Osun State Governor in 1992 died on April 23 after attending a burial ceremony of the mother of a ranking member of the All Progressives Congress, APC in the state.
Rauf Aregbesola, current Osun State Governor set up the coroner inquest to determine the actual cause of the lawmaker’s death following rumours that he may have been poisoned at the burial ceremony.
However, Adeleke’s immediate family rejected the setting up of the panel saying it was just a ploy by the State government to cover up what they described as the murder of their brother.
It should be noted that Isiaka Adeleke, before his death, was seen by some as the clear favourite to succeed governor Aregbesola in the state’s governorship election that comes up in 2018.