Lagos Court Halts Inquest Into Chimamanda Adichie’s Son’s Death
Last update: June 8, 2026
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It's been a painful, drawn-out wait for answers, and now a Lagos judge has hit pause on the whole process until autumn.
A High Court in Osborne Foreshore, Lagos, has adjourned the big judicial review case around the death of Master Nkanu Nnamdi Adichie-Esege, the 21-month-old son of author Chimamanda Adichie and Dr Ivara Esege, until 28 September 2026.
Justice Aishat Opesanwo didn't have much choice. The hospital at the centre of it all, Eurapharma Care Services Nigeria Limited, told the court they were only just served fresh court papers. Their lead counsel, Prof Taiwo Osipitan (SAN), said it plainly:
"I began to receive processes from the first to third respondents on Friday. We were still attending to those processes when the fourth to sixth respondents served us this morning."
He asked for time to reply, and even the Lagos Attorney-General, Lawal Pedro (SAN), agreed the date made sense: "that is what we agreed on, subject to the court's convenience".
Why does this matter? The whole judicial review was filed to challenge the Coroner's Court, presided over by Senior Magistrate Atinuke Adetunji, which is trying to investigate how and why little Nkanu died on 7 January 2026 at Eurapharma's Victoria Island facility.
Back on 26 May, Justice Opesanwo had already given Eurapharma permission to bring the challenge, and that permission automatically froze the coroner's inquest. Because of that order, Magistrate Adetunji suspended her own proceedings on 3 June and pushed her inquest to 8 October 2026.
Eurapharma's argument, in a nutshell, is two-fold:
they say the coroner shouldn't even be holding the inquest because the child's body had been cremated before jurisdiction kicked in, so a post-mortem is impossible
and they object to being forced to open their defence first, when it's them facing allegations of medical negligence
The court said those points raise "issues of procedure and fairness" worth hearing properly, hence the long adjournment.
So for now, both the High Court review and the coroner's fact-finding are in limbo. The parents, the hospitals, and the Lagos justice ministry will all be back in court at the end of September to argue whether the inquest should go ahead at all.
Credit:cbinewstv
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