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Court frees commissioner accused of stealing from own firm

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A magistrate’s court in Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State capital, yesterday discharged and acquitted, Dare Omotosho, Commissioner for Local Government Service Commission, who has been traumatized for more than a year over an allegation of stealing and conversion of granite worth N5 million preferred against him by Lanre Aknileye and Wale Aladeoba.

 

 

Chief Magistrate Adegboye Olusoji, in his ruling, discharged and acquitted Omotosho for the failure of the complainants to produce convincing evidence of the alleged crime and on the grounds that the ownership of the granite resides in the defendant who “cannot be a thief of what he owns.”

 

Narrating his ordeal, Omotosho, who alleged that Aladeoba and Akinleye blackmailed him when they brought the case to court in 2017, said he was the owner of Inland Stones Nigeria Limited, a quarry site in Ikere Ekiti.

 

He said: “A friend brought both Aladeoba and Akinkeye to me in 2016 and they introduced themselves as mining engineers. They leased a quarry from me for a period of three months with a promise to pay me N25 million.

 

 

They said they would revive the quarry and run it for the agreed time but after some time, I discovered they didn’t have money to even properly manage the quarry. They were using sub-standard oil to maintain the machines.

 

 

They couldn’t even drill the hole, as they used the hole I had already dug. They started blasting and crushed the stones and started producing but they refused to pay me as agreed.

 

“I waited till the agreement of three months lapsed and even increased by 10 days. I asked my lawyer to write them and inform them that they should vacate my quarry site.

 

 

They were begging me to allow them to continue but I refused because they had breached our agreement. Then, they began to threaten that they would blackmail me and destroy my reputation and political career.

 

“After some time, they went to the media to publish trumped-up charges of stealing and conversion of granite from my own quarry site against me. They petitioned the Commissioner of Police in Ekiti, alleging that I stole granite from my own quarry to the tune of N5 million.

 

 

The police investigated the matter and found that I was innocent and threw out the case.

 

 

“They again petitioned the police, insisting that the police should charge the case to court and the case was brought to court in 2017.

 

 

But when the trial of the case began, they refused to show up and were giving excuses for being sick today and not well tomorrow.

 

“ Today, however,  Chief Magistrate Adegboye Olasoji of Magistrate’s Court 1, discharged and acquitted me due to the fact that the ownership of the granite resides in me, the defendant, and the fact that the agreement the complainants had with me was breached by them.”

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