…..State Govt. wants bail applications refuse as case resumes on Wednesday
A human rights organization,the Centre for Human Rights and Social Justice(CHRSJ) has revealed how Oyo State Deputy Governor,Mr. Bayo Lawal implicated two Chieftains of All Progressives Congress(APC) in the State in a phantom murder charge since March 25,2024 over political differences.
It was alleged that they were able to carry out illegal arrest and unlawful detention of the two APC chieftains successfully with the aid of immediate past Police Commissioner of the State,Mr. Ayodele Sonubi,calling for the immediate intervention of the Presidency and the Inspector General of the Police,Dr. Kayode Egbetokun on the subject matter.
The two APC chieftains alleged of phantom murder were; Malaam Kazeem Rasheed Olofin and Ismail Jamiyu and they have been languishing in prison at Nigeria Correctional Centre,Agodi,Ibadan, the Oyo State capital over the matter they knew nothing about since March 2024.
Investigation revealed that the two APC chieftains were arrested immediately after they held a meeting with the State Deputy Governor,Mr. Bayo Lawal in his office at the State Secretariat,Ibadan over plan to ensure they returned back to the fold of Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) after they have decamped to the opposition APC along with the immediate past Deputy Governor of the State,Engineer Rauf Olaniyan who also hailed from Igboho,Oorelope Local Government area of the State at the twilight of the first term in office of Governor Seyi Makinde in 2018.
But at the said meeting at the instance of Mr. Bayo Lawal,the two APC chieftains and their followers refused to the decamp to the PDP where Mr. Lawal saw their action as a slap on his face politically.
It noted that Engineer Olaniyan was of the same federal constituency with the present Deputy Governor of Oyo State, Mr. Bayo Lawal who hailed from Kishi in Irepo Local Government area of the State.
It would be recalled that at the wake of the preparation for 2023 governorship re-election bid of Governor Seyi Makinde, the former Deputy Governor Engineer Rauf Olaniyan was removed through an illegal impeachment process by the State House of Assembly and replaced him with the current deputy,Mr. Bayo Lawal and since then,Olaniyan and his supporters including aforementioned two persecuted chieftains, across the length and breadth of the State, had decamped to All Progressives Congress (APC) since 2018.
In a statement signed statement by the CHRSJ’s Assistant General Secretary, Pastor Micheal Agassi and made available to newsmen on Tuesday, stated that the murder allegation against the cheiftains of the APC in the State was a trump-up charge and political in natutre,advising Mr. Bayo Lawal to shun politics of bitterness in the State.
Pastor Agassi described the action of Mr. Lawal as unlawful, ungodly,illegal,unconstitutional,anathema,abomination and eveil against God and humanity.
Meanwhile,all efforts to get their bail applications granted before the State High Court had been thwarted by the State Counsel on the directive of the Mr. Bayo Lawal and State Attorney- General and Commissioner for Justice for no justification,adding that the State High Court has fixed Wednesday 19th day of March,2025 for hearing of their bail application before Justice Olusola Adebisi Adetujoye of State High Court (11), Ibadan Judicial Division,Ring- Road,Ibadan.
Signed:
Pastor Micheal Agassi
Assistant General Secretary
CHRSJ,Nigeria
+2349018677671.
