Akingboye Joseph Oluwaseun
THE Ayalodi and Gbado-Odoo families of Ilado in Akure North Local Government Area of Ondo State have urged the state government to put to book the killers of their son, Tope Ojo, who was serially stabbed to death three months ago.
This was contained in a petition written to Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu (SAN) and made available to The Polity yesterday by the families’ counsel, Mr. Atima Koboju, raising an alarm over attempts to shield the killers of the deceased from the due course of the law.
The murder case was instituted between the Commissioner for Police and Mr Ojo Olaniyi Alonge, Mr. Omoniyi Oluwatuyi, Mr. Ademola Adesuyi, Mr. Femi Oguntuwase and Chief Owoyemi Ojo, who were accused to be syndicates in the murder.
The families implored Governor Akeredolu to review the case and legal advice over alleged sale of justice, reckless abuse of power and office, cruel compromise by the office of the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) in the state Ministry of Justice.
Late Ojo, who was the Youth Leader of Ilado community, was stabbed to death on February 3, 2017 when the Deji of Akure, Oba Aladelusi Oguntoyinbo reportedly installed a new king when there is still a substantive Olu of Ilado, Chief Rotimi Tominiyi.
This caused some members of the community to resist the entrance of the new king, Ojo Owoyemi, after his coronation at the Deji’s palace to Ilado community, culminating into a serious fracas eventually.
According to the family, “In the process, Tope, the Youth Leader, was stabbed with a broken bottle on his head. He was taken to the hospital for treatment.
“It was after his return from there that he was eventually stabbed in the chest with a sharp object after which he died. The case file was duplicated and sent to DPP for legal advice.”
But the families’ counsel lamented that the medical report (autopsy) and staments by the eyewitnesses were deliberately ignored by the advising legal officer and the DPP.
He added that the legal advice was treated with “light-speed,” claiming that the manner showed that there is a top compromise on the case which amounts to an abuse of powers and office by the officers who worked on the legal advice.
They complained to Governor Akeredolu that “the advising officer disappointingly did not give any reason why each accused person was advised to be let off the hook of the charge of murder in spite of the coroner’s ordinance, medical statement and statements of eyewitness.
“We therefore passionately urge Your Excellency to direct the review of the legal advice in order to correct the wrong that such legal advice will occasion to the defenceless complainant in order to maintain a society ruled on the foundations of the rule of law, equity and justice.”
However, Chief Ojo, the newly installed Olu of Ilado community, denied the allegations against him, stating that it was Tominiyi who ordered his supporters to attack him and shed blood.
The embattled Olu, Ojo, who claimed he is entitled to the throne because his mother hails from the community, narrated that he contested for the throne in 2014 but was hindered due to the subsisting litigation at the Akure High Court.
He argued that Tominiyi was unscrupulously installed on December 20, 2014 until the new Elemo of Akure intervened and Deji coronated him as the rightful Olu of the community three months ago.
The new Olu narrated how the late Youth Leader mobilized thugs to assault him and his supporters, destroyed his properties and stole his wife’s money and handbag.
He denied taking thugs to the committee and refuted the allegations that he killed Tope Ojo, whose corpse is still in the mortuary.
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