Police reschedules autopsy of deceased Premier Academy student

Another autopsy for 14-year-old Karen-Happuch Akpager has been rescheduled to Wednesday July 7, 2021.

Karen’s death went viral on social media after her mother alleged that she was raped at Premier Academy Lugbe where she was a student.

The rape according to a cry for help by Karen’s mother Vivien Akpager which went viral on social media alleged that a condom was left in her body following the incident and this infected her and resulted in sepsis leading to her death.

An autopsy on Saturday July 3 was stalled owing to the alleged refusal of the Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP)to release a copy of the medical report.

The rescheduling of the autopsy is coming on the heels of a call by a coalition of Gender Based Violence responders who warned the police against frustrating the procedure for the second time.

The coalition made up of Lemmy Ughegbe of Men Against Rape Foundation and Mrs Edoamaowo Udeme of Network Against Domestic Violence Foundation, made their position known in a statement.  

While decrying the refusal of the DCP to release a copy of the medical report to the police appointed pathologist, Dr Desmond Ike Okonkwo as required by autopsy procedure, the coalition, called for a probe to ascertain the interest of the Police officer in the matter.

“This is reprehensible and raises suspicion as to his motive. Why will he want to sit on the medical report and not release it to the police appointed pathologist? What is in the medical report that the police chief does not want the pathologist to see? the coalition asked in the statement.

The coalition said its members have meanwhile commenced discreet investigation into the matter and have also interviewed the deceased mother in other to verify the authenticity or otherwise of her claims.

The coalition promised to come up with an official position as soon as the report of the autopsy is released.

The school at the centre of the controversy on its part has promised to assist police in its investigation as it has been doing since the news broke.

Premier Academy Lugbe in a statement on its official Facebook page said the school’s management while commiserating with Keren’s family, said it is fully cooperating with law enforcement agents to get to the root of the matter.

The statement read “We wish to clearly state that we will cooperate with the police unit as we are committed to ensuring that the actual cause of Keren’s death is fully determined.”