The Lagos State Government may have to exhume the bodies of financial experts who died following the fire that gutted the Afriland Tower around the Lagos Island axis of the state, after the Coroner conducting an inquest on the inferno directed human rights lawyer, Femi Falana, as well as other legal practitioners requesting for an autopsy to write the government and demand that a postmortem exercise on the corpses.
It said that exhuming the bodies and conducting a proper autopsy to determine the cause of death is crucial for the inquest.
The Coroner, Senior Magistrate Atinuke Adetunji, asked Falana, who is the petitioner in the inquest, to write to the state government to make the demands after a lawyer to one of the deceased persons told the court that some of the fire incident victims had already been buried by their families.
The Coroner has also stated that the families of such persons cannot be compelled to participate in the process if they have already buried their dead.
Though Falana was not present in court, he was represented at the preliminary meeting of the inquest by his counsel Yahya Atata.
Adetunji also instructed the petitioner to meet with the families to identify those who had been buried, those who had not, and those willing to have their deceased exhumed for autopsy.
The Coroner also summoned United Bank for Africa (UBA), the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), United Capital, both the Federal and Lagos State Fire Services, the Lagos State Safety Commission, the Lagos State Emergency Management Agency, and the families of the deceased persons to appear before her for the inquest.
The magistrate urged any other interested parties to file their application stating their interest in the proceedings.
By a letter dated September 29, 2025, Falana had urged the Lagos Chief Coroner, Justice Mojisola Dada, to conduct an inquest to determine the actual cause of the tragic incident of September 16, 2025 at Afriland Towers on Broad Street, Lagos Island.
Falana also urged the state to initiate a coroner’s inquest into the deaths of the individuals and make appropriate recommendations under Section 15 of the Lagos State Coroner’s Law, 2007, which stipulates that an inquest shall be conducted whenever a coroner is informed of a death that occurred under violent, unnatural, or suspicious circumstances.
The Coroner is also to make recommendations to avoid a recurrence of the sad incident.
Magistrate Adetunji has adjourned further proceedings to November 26.
