Oyo State High Court, sitting in Ibadan, has discharged and acquitted the former Chief Whip of Oyo State House of Assembly, Mr. Olafisoye Akinmoyede, who represented Lagelu state constituency in the eighth assembly over the murder of Mr. Temitope Olatoye. Mr. Olatoye was murdered on Saturday, March 9, 2019, the day governorship and House of Assembly elections were held in the state. Until his death, Olatoye, fondly called ‘Sugar’ represented Lagelu/Akinyele federal constituency in the House of Representatives in the eighth assembly. He was the Chairman, House Committee on Urban Development and Regional Planning.
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Olatoye was shot in the head; the bullets hit his left eye, left upper jaw and forehead. Daily Sun learned that he ran into an ambush laid for him by his attackers when he was returning from his village, Alape in Lagelu Local Government Area, where he had gone to vote. Olatoye was in the Oyo State House of Assembly from 2011 to 2015 and was also elected into the House of Representatives in 2015.
The police had investigated the gruesome murder and later arrested Akinmoyede, and three others that they also took to the court in a case with I/70c/2019. The three other vindicated suspects are Rafiu Adebayo, Rasheed Oladele, and Kazeem Ayinde.
The prosecuting counsel, Mr. M.A. Ojeah, who handled the case on behalf of the Commissioner of Police in Oyo State, had leveled a two-count charge of conspiracy and murder of Olatoye against Akinmoyede and the three others. They all pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Delivering the judgment yesterday, Justice Ademola Adegbola, discharged and acquitted the accused. Justice Adegbola said that the prosecution did not prove its’ case beyond a reasonable doubt that Akinmoyede and the three others were the ones that shot Olatoye with a firearm that eventually led to his death.
The court held that Prosecution Witness One (PW1) who was the star witness in the case, Mr. Olajide Olatoye, a younger brother to the deceased, on oath, submitted that none of all the four accused was involved in the murder of his elder brother, but one Jelili Okanlomo, who is still at large, committed the crime.
The court said: “In my view, taking together the charges filed against the four defendants, the prosecution has not established any nexus to connect any of the four defendants to the offences with regard to the murder of Olatoye Temitope Sugar. I therefore hold that the prosecution has not proved any of the ingredients relating to the two charges against the four defendants.
“The prosecution failed totally to prove any of the ingredients of the two charges preferred against the accused persons. It will amount to turning on the defendants to prove their innocence, which is not a requirement of the Nigeria Criminal Justice System. In fact, doing so contravenes the constitutional rights of the defendants, Section 36(5) of the 1999 constitution (as amended).
“For this reason, I will not consider the evidence by the defendants, in its defence, as the prosecution has not established any of the ingredients of the two offences charged so as to warrant the court to ask any of the four defendants to enter upon its defence.
“In conclusion, taking together the case put before me by the prosecution, together with the evidence led, I am of the opinion that the prosecution failed to establish the charges preferred against the defendants, and the defendants are discharged and acquitted.”
Olatoye, who was shot in the eye by assailants, and was rushed to the University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan, for medical attention, died in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the teaching hospital.
Olatoye, as gathered, was shot at Lalupon, in Lagelu LGA, which is the local government of his origin. According to the investigation, elections in the local government were always characterized by violence. The council witnessed killings of its illustrious sons in the past, including one Segun Oladimeji, popularly known as ‘Segelu’ on September 15, 2007, at the time he too was serving in the House of Representatives, representing Akinyele/Lagelu federal constituency. Oladimeji was shot in the leg at Ejioku, which is about two kilometers to Lalupon, where Olatoye was shot.
