Some aggrieved members of the ancient city of Oyo, have petitioned President Muhammadu Buhari, asking him to compel the Police to execute a court judgement ordering the investigation of Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi for alleged criminalities.
The petition received at the State House on Friday, said that December 15, 2014, a Federal High Court, sitting in Ibadan, had issued an order of mandamus compelling the Inspector General of Police to investigate Oba Adeyemi for alleged criminalities, including murder, bomb planting, unlawful possession of arms and so on.
The allegations are contained in a March 18, 2014 petition to IG’s office titled: “Unprecedented criminality, flagrant human rights violations, bomb planting, gun running and unresolved assassinations in Oyo town, Oyo state.”
The application for mandamus with the suit No: FHC/IB/CS/54/2014 was filed at the Federal High court, Ibadan, by the applicants’ counsel, Biodun Abdur-Raheem on July 16, 2014, two months after the police declined actions on the petition.
Messrs. Oluokun and Ishola, are from Isale-Oyo community with which the Alaafin has been at loggerheads since 1992, when the head of the community, Amuda Olohunosebi, then the Ashipa of Oyo land, was murdered.
But thirteen months after the court gave its order, the Nigerian Police are yet to comply, raising suspicion that Oba Adeyemi is being helped to stave off investigation by some powerful individuals.
“But because we believe the new government of Buhari will not be party to injustice, we petitioned the Presidency,” counsel to the petitioners, Abdul Rabin said.
Earlier, the petitooners, Jacob Oluokun and Suleiman Ishola have petitioned the International Criminal Court “in a bid to further press for justice”.
“We write as concerned indigenes and residents of the ancient Oyo town, Oyo State, who are disturbed by the wanton murder of innocent citizens and the traumatisation of the indigenes by the Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi 111, through his goons, the acts of which have remained unchecked and un-investigated by the Nigerian State in spite of all known legal processes to cause the State to do so.
“So if Oba Adeyemi 111 is too big for Nigeria State to be investigated and brought to book, the ICC is our last hope to stymie the criminal tendencies of his and restore the hope that nobody is above the law,” Messrs. Oluokun and Ishola wrote in the petition to The Hague, dated September 9, 2015.
Among others, one of the annexures to the petitions to the Inspector General of Police, the ICC and lately to President Buhari, was a letter from the Oyo State Commissioner of Police to the Oyo Area Command dated September 19, 2009.
In the letter, the Commissioner directed his subordinate, the Area Commander, to “please arrest the situation before it is too late because the Alaafin intends to bomb the ancient city of Oyo”.
According to the letter, some of the places the Alaafin was suspected to have planned to bomb during the 2009 Eid Kabir festival day included Oloja’s palace and Isale Oyo praying ground, Sab0; Bizin illahi Estate; and Unique Hotel where Elepe Iseke lived.
Accordingly, the suspected move of the Alaafin was “revealed by top members of the Tobalase group owned by the Alaafin of Oyo”.
Of the said Tobalse group, a report by the State Security Services, claimed the group was founded by the Al;aafin “originally to oust the Baale Ago Oja, hence the location of their base contiguous to both Ashipa’s residence and the market of Isale-Oyo”.
“The group has included in their activities harassment and intimidation of perceived enemies of the monarch within the three (3) LGAs in Oyo,” the report added.
The SSS report also mentioned murder cases of a chief Rashidi Adebayo Salami popularly called Atingisi (February 15, 2009) and that of a Medical Doctor, Ogunniyi (December, 2005) who was said to have been involved in a land dispute with his former lover and later, Alaafin’s wife, Yetunde Adeyemi.
The report alleged that the murders were carried out by the Tobalase group, allegedly founded by Adeyemi.
Meanwhile, the head of the Tobalase group, Mojeed Agbaje, now estranged from the Alaafin, has said in video clip circulated in compact disc and available on YouTube, that the Oyo monarch indeed instructed him to carry out nefarious activities, including murder.
On March 14, 2014, Agbaje deposed to an affidavit at the High Court of Oyo State, sitting in Ibadan, “confirming the contents of the video CD”.
He swore “that the video CD made in Yoruba contains highlight of the various activities I engaged in during my service to the Alaafin of Oyo, His Royal Majesty, Oba Lamidi Olayiwola Adeyemi 111.”
Meanwhile, a copy of the correspondence from the ICC acknolegding receipt of the petition against the Nigerian authorities over failure to investigate the Alaafin, indicates that ICC has begun its investigations and would subsequently ask the Nigerian authorities to act..
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