Adeleke’s appointee remanded to custody for murder by the Federal High Court

On Thursday, 1st January 2024 a Federal High Court in Osogbo, Osun State, remanded Olalekan Oyeyemi, a member of the Osun Park Management System, to the Ile-Ife Correctional Centre.

Ademola Adeleke, the State Governor, nominated Oyeyemi, also referred to as “Emir.”

The Nigeria Police Force hauled him before the Court and filed an 11-count complaint against him.

He was previously detained in 2023 for bashing a man into a coma by the Osun State Police Command’s Anti-Kidnapping Unit.

Just before Oyeyemi’s accusation was going to be read during the Thursday session, his attorney Edmund Biriomoni brought up the jurisdictional question.

In addition to contesting the court’s power to hear the case and a few of the counts against his client, Biriomoni stated he has submitted a preliminary objection to the murder accusation brought against Oyeyemi.

“We were served with an 11-count charge,” he declared. We are contesting the court’s jurisdiction to hear the case. We are contesting the court’s jurisdiction to hear the defendant’s plea on counts 4 through 8, which involve murder.

“The prosecution replaced the charge and altered the numbers we are contesting after we filed a preliminary objection to the initial allegation that included murder from number 1 to number 4.”

In response, the prosecutor from Force Headquarters, Abuja, Umar Usman, requested that the court dismiss an earlier charge dated October 16, 2023, and substitute it with an updated charge dated January 31, 2024.

After accepting the modified charge, the prosecutor next requested the court to accept the defendant’s plea.

However, Defense Attorneys reviewed the altered indictment and requested permission from the court to raise objections to counts 4 through 11 of the new charge orally. The court denied their request.

Usman argued that the defendant could only enter a plea, pleading with the court to allow the case to proceed, before objecting to the jurisdiction.

Nonetheless, Justice Nathaniel Ayo-Emmanuel allowed the charge to be withdrawn and substituted in his decision.

Remanding the defendant to the Ile-Ife Correctional Centre, he urged Biriomoni to submit an official objection on his client’s behalf to the new accusation.

The judge then postponed the case until March 5, 2024

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