Dr. Ivara Esege and his wife, award-winning author Chimamanda Adichie, on Monday urged the Lagos State High Court to dismiss Eurapharma Care Services Nigeria Limited\u2019s suit seeking to halt the coroner\u2019s inquest into the death of their son, Master Nkanu Adichie-Esege.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kemi Pinheiro, SAN, appearing on behalf of what he described as \u201cthe most aggrieved Respondents,\u201d described the hospital\u2019s judicial review application as premature, arguing that the coroner had made no decision or determination of rights capable of being quashed by the High Court. He likened the suit to a \u201cUsain Bolt\/Ben Johnson\u201d suit. The argument formed the substance of a preliminary objection in Suit No. LD\/7069MJR\/2026, before Justice A.O. Opesanwo of the Lagos State High Court, sitting in Osborne, Ikoyi. Pinheiro argued that the court does not hunger or thirst for jurisdiction; it can only act where statute permits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Eurapharma is seeking orders of certiorari and prohibition to challenge the coroner\u2019s proceedings and a directive requiring the hospital to commence its evidence in the inquest. The hospital has also challenged the continuation of the inquest following the cremation of Nkanu\u2019s remains, contending that the absence of the body makes the inquest impossible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pinheiro, however, argued that the proceedings complained of were merely preliminary and procedural, stressing that no witness had been called, no evidence taken, and no substantive finding made by the coroner. He submitted that judicial review could not be used to pre-empt a decision that the coroner had not yet made.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Citing Section 21 of the Lagos State Coroners\u2019 System Law, he argued that the law expressly contemplates an inquest where a body has been destroyed or cannot be recovered. He also relied on Section 31(1) of the Coroners\u2019 System Law, particularly the reference to the coroner viewing the body \u201cif any,\u201d contending that the absence of the remains does not, without more, extinguish the coroner\u2019s jurisdiction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Lagos State Attorney-General, Lawal Pedro, SAN, also relied on a preliminary objection against the suit. Relying particularly on Grounds 3 and 4 of the objection, he urged the court to strike out the suit and allow the inquest to proceed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In line with the arguments of the Attorney-General of Lagos State and Pinheiro, SAN, counsel to Atlantis Paediatric Hospital Limited, Dr. Abiodun Layonu, SAN, and Adeniji Kazeem, SAN, also argued that Eurapharma\u2019s concern had already been addressed in the proceedings of April 14, 2026, before the coroner, where it was conceded that the family would lead its evidence first. He argued that Sections 21 and 40 of the Coroners\u2019 System Law allow the inquest to proceed even where a body cannot be recovered. He urged the court to dismiss the suit so that the parties could return to continue the inquest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For Eurapharma, Prof. Taiwo Osipitan, SAN, maintained that the hospital should not be compelled to commence its evidence first while a complainant who had made allegations of medical incompetence against it had not yet led evidence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After hearing the parties, Justice Opesanwo reserved ruling until October 12, 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Dr. Ivara Esege and his wife, award-winning author Chimamanda Adichie, on Monday urged the Lagos State High Court to dismiss Eurapharma Care Services Nigeria Limited\u2019s suit seeking to halt the coroner\u2019s inquest into the death of their son, Master Nkanu Adichie-Esege. Kemi Pinheiro, SAN, appearing on behalf of what he described as \u201cthe most aggrieved<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":97687,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[169],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-97686","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-judiciary"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kokocurrent.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97686","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kokocurrent.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kokocurrent.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kokocurrent.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kokocurrent.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=97686"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kokocurrent.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97686\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":97688,"href":"https:\/\/kokocurrent.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97686\/revisions\/97688"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kokocurrent.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/97687"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kokocurrent.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=97686"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kokocurrent.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=97686"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kokocurrent.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=97686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}