IYAYI'S DEATH: AUTOPSY SHOWS NO BULLETS - MEDICAL SOURCE

SOURCE: Saharareporters

A medical exam conducted to unravel the cause of death of Festus Iyayi showed no evidence of bullets, a source familiar with the autopsy has...

informed SaharaReporters. Mr. Iyayi, a professor of business
management at the University of Benin who was also a well known
novelist and academic activist, he died November 12 in an automobile
accident near Lokoja. Mr. Iyayi was on his way to attend a meeting of
the Academic Staff Union of Universities when the vehicle in which he
was traveling was hit by a car in the convoy of Governor Idris Wada of
Kogi State.
Our source said that a team of pathologists who included experts and
witnesses from ASUU, medical doctors at the University of Benin
Teaching Hospital and the Nigerian government carried out an autopsy
and unanimously determined that Mr. Iyayi was not shot.
With the official report of the autopsy still being put together, our
source disclosed that the participants in the autopsy confirmed the
presence of holes in Mr. Iyayi's body, even though they could not
trace the piercings to any bullets. He added that medical examiners
recovered no pellets from the late Professor's body.
The autopsy was reportedly done about a week before the commencement
of Mr. Iyayi's funeral. The late academic's funeral ended yesterday
with a "thanksgiving Mass at Saint Mathew's Catholic Church in
Ugbegun, Edo State. Mr. Iyayi's remains were buried in the same town
on Saturday.
A renowned Nigerian writer and activist, Mr. Iyayi was a former
national leader of ASUU. He also served as a former President of the
Committee for the Defense of Human Rights (CDHR).
SaharaReporters disclosed that Mr. Iyayi was killed in a crash
involving the notoriously reckless convoy of Kogi State Governor, Mr.
Wada. Mr. Iyayi was on his way to Kano to attend a council meeting of
ASUU executives to discuss the next step in a long-running strike by
lecturers that has grounded Nigeria's public universities and mired
the country's education in a crisis.
However, members of the late Professor Iyayi's family and activists
close to him said they have not been informed of the final results of
the autopsy. His son, Omole, told Saharareporters earlier today that
the family had not received any official autopsy reports from doctors
in Benin. He said they were therefore surprised at the conclusions.