The trial of five murder suspects in Lagos by the police, recently, met a brick wall after attempts to carry out thorough investigations were allegedly thwarted by a top government official in Ogun State.
The murder suspects, Hammed Olayiwola, 45, Taofeek Ajasa, 47, Samuel Ajose, 39, Segun Elijah, 54, Segun Dada, 54, and Elijah Adeogun,43, were earlier arrested by the police at Zone 2 Command, Onikan, Lagos, for the fracas that occurred in Osuke village, Ado-Odo/Ota in Ogun State, following a petition to the Inspector-General of Police by Lanre Balogun and others on behalf of Ileke family descendants against Adeogun Elijah and others.
The petitioner alleged criminal conspiracy, unlawful possession of firearms, causing grievous harm, attempted murder and murder. It was reportedly referred to Assistant Inspector-General of Police in Zone 2, Onikan, for discreet investigation, after which detectives swung into action and arrested the suspects. It was gathered that the allegations were based on the raid of Osuke village with sophisticated weapons by some masked gunmen who engaged in shooting and causing a breach of peace, after which Saheed Shoboyede Jinadu, 24, was fatally shot and was later confirmed dead.
Police sources said the zonal tracking unit waded into the matter and all the necessary legal steps, including the letter of investigation sent to the magistrate’s court in Ota, High court in Ilaro, Court of Appeal in Ibadan for verification of documents, MTN and Airtel communication services in order to generate call logs and other useful information to assist the investigation.
Reports said detectives succeeded in recovering two expended AK-47 rifle ammunition shells and two expended cartridge at the crime scene and later transfered them as exhibits after arresting the suspects.
The case, however, took a different dimension after detectives made efforts to obtain court papers for their remand in Ogun State pending the conclusion of their investigations but their efforts were thwarted by a top government official said to be a member of the church that bought the land, which caused the bloody fracas in Osuke village.
Furthermore, police sources said their efforts to get the result of the autopsy to know the cause of death of the deceased, get the result of the recovered empty shells for forensic analysis and arrest other suspects implicated in the murder case were hampered by the government official whom they alleged was busy taking all steps using his office to release the suspects who are known as notorious land grabbers in Ogun State.
The case came to the open after the Attorney General of Ogun State, Oluwasina Ogungbade, SAN, released a statement indicting the investigating officers and the AIG of being used by land grabbers. He also reportedly accused the AIG of attempting to preempt a review of misconduct and criminal enterprise of the policemen under his watch.
In the statement, the AG stated that, from the errors made by police investigators, it was clear that his ministry was being unwittingly used to carry out injustice and persecute a citizen, hence, it discontinued the charges in court.
The AG said he only called for the case file to look into the matter as land grabber perpetrate evil and rope innocent people into crime.
According to him, he has been doing the same thing to ensure justice across board so that innocent people won’t suffer, “I have saved many innocent victims from trump-up charges and allegations. Once I call for a case file and I see injustice in the case, I write to DPP, but when I study the case file and see that the suspect has a case to answer, I don’t waste time to offer advice. A lot is happening in Ogun State that we need to be careful.”
Meanwhile, police sources said the case and suspects have been transferred to Force Headquarters, Abuja, for further investigation, while efforts are being made to arrest other fleeing suspects in the matter.