EXCLUSIVE: FG’s Evidence Against Late Osinachi Nwachukwu’s Husband, Full Autopsy Report

The office of the Attorney General of the Federation will tender about 11 items as evidence or exhibits including an autopsy report against the husband of the late gospel artist, Osinachi Nwachukwu, Peter, THE WHISTLER can report.

On Friday, the Federal Capital Territory High Court, Wuse Zone 2, remanded Nwachukwu at the Kuje Correctional Facility after he pleaded not guilty to 23 count charges bordering on alleged homicide, willfully placing his late wife in fear of physical injury, among others.

Justice N.K. Nwosu-Iheme ordered his trial to begin on June 16.

The autopsy report stamped by the National Hospital, Abuja exclusively obtained by THE WHISTLER, saw no mark of violence in the deceased but listed the causes for her death.

The medical report seen by our correspondent was titled “Corona ordinance (Chapter 41), Report of Medical Practitioner” and it partly reads:

“The main findings include generalized organ pallor, bilateral leg swelling, fluid in the sac containing the heart. Tumor deposits in and on the heart, lungs, kidneys. Massively enlarged heart. She also has fluid around the lungs which restrict breathing. Her spleen is enlarged and has signs of infection. There are no marks of violence in her on our examination.”

“I certify the cause of death in my opinion to be : Cardiac Tamponade( serious fluid in the sac containing the heart; tumours in the heart, lungs, kidneys; Septicaemia.”

The report stated that her body was identified by the deceased’s siblings, Inspector John Nanpak and two others.

See the Coroner report below.

Our correspondent also observed that other exhibits in possession of the complainant ( federal government) against Peter include report of a diagnosis on the late singer’s lungs obtained from the National Hospital Abuja, among others.

Meanwhile, the admissibility of any exhibit in court is usually based on the discretion and ruling of the presiding judge after hearing from lawyers in the case.

Recall that when Osinachi died on April 8, her colleagues and family members had insisted that her husband subjected her to domestic violence.

The Nigeria Police arrested and detained him subsequently.

But upon the order of the FCT High Court judge, he was transferred to Kuje prison.

Her family members maintained that it was the husband’s alleged maltreatment of his wife that aggravated her health condition leading to her death.

The FG also holds same view in count one of the charge sheet which lists culpable homicide as one of the offences.

But Peter alleged that his late wife died of cancer of the lungs.

A lawyer, Barrister Maxwell Opara, who spoke to our correspondent on the autopsy and the charges against Osinachi’s husband, said that if the coroner’s investigation did not spot violence on the deceased body, the federal government may not be able to get him convicted for homicide.

He said, “How can you sustain that charge when there are hospital results and autopsy report? The hospital has reports, they have a file.

“You are talking about culpable homicide, don’t you know what is homicide is?

“The thing (charge) is dead on arrival. They (prosecution) cannot succeed on the homicide charge because before you say someone killed somebody; when, how, what, where and who is the eye witness? Culpable homicide means I killed somebody and the accusation must be direct, it must not be indirect and you (the prosecution) will link it. You can sue him for threat to life, violence, not for culpable homicide.”

The lawyer also said that other charges bordering on domestic violence, verbal and emotional abuse will require weighty evidence like the testimony of the children, to convict him accordingly.

“The evidence that the court may rely on is the evidence of the children,” he said.