LESS than two weeks after the elder brother of the slain lawmaker, Mr Olatoye Temitope aka Sugar alleged that the Oyo State Government was facilitating the release of a suspect detained over the murder, Mr Olafioye Akinmoyede, a State High Court sitting in Ibadan has granted him bail.
Olatoye Temitope Sugar
Sugar, who represented Akinyele/Lagelu Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives, was murdered by unknown gunmen at Lalupon motor park in Lagelu area of Ibadan, the Oyo State capital during March 9 gubernatorial and House of Assembly elections.
The suspect in the case who is the Chief Whip in the Oyo State House of Assembly was arrested in connection with the murder case on March 11, 2019, and has since been in police custody.
Dissatisfied with his continued detention, Akinmoyede, through his counsel, Mr Michael Lana, had approached the court accusing the police of having breached his fundamental human rights by detaining him since March 11 without being charged to court as the law prescribes.
Lana had urged the court to declare the continued detention of his client in police custody in Abuja as unlawful and a violation of his fundamental human rights.
He, therefore, prayed the court to grant him bail pending his arraignment at the court of law.
The presiding judge, Justice Mashud Abass, before granting the bail said he considered the action of the police as arrogant, unlawful and unconstitutional.
According to him, all actions of the police must be seen to have justification in law and the fundamental rights of the applicant must not be restrained by any technicality.
The judge said that the practice of the police making an arrest before an investigation was improper.
“The power of the police to arrest and detain is not in doubt but the constitution stipulates that any person detained must be arraigned in court within 24hours”.
“The remand order obtained by the police from an Iyaganku Magistrate court had expired since April 4 and detaining the applicant beyond this period is flagrant disobedience to the constitution.”
“Obedience to court order should be the responsibility of all who believe in the stability of Nigeria,” the judge said.
The judge also held that the police had not provided any justification that would warrant the court not to grant bail to the applicant.
In his ruling, the judge held that the applicant should be granted bail with a surety who is blood relation with landed property worth N50 million among others.
The judge said that the other surety should be a civil servant on grade level 14 or a member of the state House of Assembly.
