Daily Independent Online.
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Thursday, July 01, 2004.
Omisore: The law to his rescue
Eighteen
months after the commencement of the trial of former Osun State deputy
governor, Iyiola Omisore, an Ibadan, Osun State High Court discharged and
acquitted
him
in the two-count charge for conspiracy and murderof former Attorney General of
the Federation and Minister of Justice, Chief Bola Ige, SAN. Victor Efeizomor,
Law Reporter, chronicles the legal
proceedings that finally worked in Omisore’s favour.
Expressions
of surprise, bewilderment and joy, depending on where the sympathy lies,
trailed the judgment of the Oyo State High court judge, Justice Akin Sanda,
sitting in Ibadan when he discharged and acquitted Senator Iyiola Omisore last
Friday, in the Chief Bola Ige murder trial. The former deputy governor of Osun
State had been standing trial for 18 months on a two-court charge of murder and
conspiracy. Ige, Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice at
the time of his death, was murdered in his Ibadan residence, December 23, 2001.
Justice Sanda dismissed the
prosecution’s case on grounds of confusion and inconsistency in its
evidence, saying that it is better for a guilty person to go unpunished than
for an innocent person to be punished. “In a case where there is no
direct evidence against the prisoner, but only the kind of evidence that is
called circumstantial, you must first make up your mind as to portions of
circumstantial evidence that have been established and then when you have got
that clear, you must ask your self, is this sufficient proof?” Sanda
declared.
The pronouncement of Justice Sanda of
High Court 11, had Omisore’s admirers and relations alike who had been
passionately following the court proceedings, weeping for joy. This was
understandable: Going by the legal fireworks, which the prosecution deployed,
they might have given up hope on the politician breathing air of freedom.
Omisore was linked with the murder
because of the political crisis that rocked Osun State in 2001 but he was not
arrested until December 27, 2002 as he had been enjoying immunity as deputy
governor. Soon after he stepped out of office on his impeachment by the Osun
State House of Assembly, he was arrested to face the criminal charges. While
the matter was yet to commence proper in court, Omisore contested and won the
election in his federal constituency to represent Ife Senatorial district while
in detention. Subsequently, bail
was granted him on health grounds, which enabled him to attend the swearing-in
ceremony of legislators in Abuja. He was thereafter appointed the Senate
Committee chairman for industries, before the Senate President, Chief Adolphus
Wabara, dissolved all the committees.
Omisore’s bail enjoyment was
however short-lived as it was revoked by Mr. Justice Moshood Abass to whom the
case was re-assigned after it was withdrawn from Justice Olagoke Ige’s
court. On July 7, 2003, Abass sent Omisore back to Agodi prison because the
defence did not file a fresh bail application. But the judge required the
defence to subsequently address him on why the court should continue to uphold
the earlier bail granted by Justice Ige. According to Abass, he was not bound
by the discretionary powers of his learned brother to allow the bail continue.
Suprisingly, Abass hands off the case on July 14, 2003, alleging “undue
pressure from unexpected quarters,” but he did not reverse the remand
order on Omisore. His spirited efforts to have it reversed at the Court of
Appeal failed.
Justice Sanda, the fourth judge in the
case, had on October 31, 2003 after taking the evidence of 15 prosecution
witnesses, asked Omisore to enter his defence. Not willing to do so, Omisore
again, headed for the Court of Appeal but after some time withdrew and resolved
to face trial.
The defence called nine witnesses,
including Omisore as the defence witness 1 (DW1), and argued that the
prosecution had failed to link Omisore with the offence. It prayed Justice
Sanda to discharge and acquit him. But the prosecution team replied, urging the
court to discountenance the defence. On June 7, 2004, Justice Sanda adjourned
for him to deliver judgment, after the defence had closed its case.
Delivering
his judgment on June 25, Justice Sanda said the police failed to conduct a
thorough investigation, by merely focusing their attention on only one angle,
while shutting their eyes to various other probable circumstances that could
have been found to be responsible for the killing of Ige. He emphasised that
investigation was rather slipshod and that the court decides cases based on
facts presented by the parties and not on sentiments and speculations.
“Apart from the limited areas which the police mapped out as the central
focus of their investigation, there are other important and useful areas to
which they ought to have beamed their searchlights in this type of the
case.”
Indeed, the prosecution led by Chief
Debo Akande, SAN, had submitted that the evidence they had against Omisore was
merely circumstantial. It particularly hinged its argument on the alleged
confessional statement of the prime suspect, Olugbenga Adebayo (a.k.a. Fryo),
who said Omisore commissioned him with N5 million to kill Ige. Fryo was to
later recant, saying that Lagos lawyer, Mr. Festus Keyamo, to whom the
confessional statement was, and who handed him over to the police on January
14, 2002, tutored him to implicate Omisore and other chieftains of the
People’s Democratic Party (PDP). Fryo had earlier been declared wanted by
the police for his alleged involvement in the conspiracy and murder of Ige.
Omisore however reportedly said in his statement to the police and in his
defence, during oral evidence that, “I do not know Fryo from Adam.”
The defence, led by Anthony Idigbe, SAN,
told the court that their client was only being prosecuted for political
reasons, stressing that several avenues abound and were open to the police to
investigate and find the real killers. They referred to the Alliance for
Democracy/Afenifere rift, which they said nearly consumed Ige; the fact of
Ige’s office in Abuja being burgled, with accusing fingers pointed at
some drug barons who Ige had resolved to prosecute as Attorney General by all
means. Reports had it some files were burnt in the AG’s office, while
some were taken away. To worsen the case, some police chiefs who investigated
the matter, among them Mr. Felix Ogbaudu and Mr. Gabriel Adejoh (police
commissioners), told the court, that their investigation reports showed that
“the allegation against the former Osun Deputy Governor showed that it
was based on political reasons.” Omisore was not even investigated
initially when the murder took place because he was still enjoying immunity as
deputy governor.
Summing up all these shortcomings, in
addition to the fact that some cogent evidence were not established; for
instance, the tape of the recorded interview Omisore granted to Tempo
magazine wherein he reportedly said that, “Ige would have been killed,
Ige came to Ife and insulted my people and me. That will be his last,”
was not produced as exhibit, the court said the prosecution had failed to prove
the guilt of the accused on conspiracy count.
Justice Sanda held that the case of the
prosecution was fraught with myriad of contradictions and inconsistencies. He
therefore said, “On the totality of the evidence which is insufficient,
the charge of conspiracy to murder and murder cannot be sustained.” He
noted that, “The entire area of activities, involvement and connections
of the deceased (Ige) must be thoroughly investigated to unravel the mystery
behind the killing.”
In his reaction to the judgment, one of
the prosecution counsel, Otunba Kunle Kalejaiye, said his client knew nothing
at all about the death of Ige. “It was a political set-up and that is
what we have been saying; that by prosecuting this man, you have only come to
expose the inadequacies of the police. Others options were open to the police
to conduct their investigation but they just concentrated on political
directions. So, I must say that we are happy and I am sure those who engineered
this thing in the first place have their conscience to worry them.”
President of the Nigeria Bar Association
(NBA), Chief Wole Olanipekun, SAN, said the court verdict was based on the
strength of the evidence by the prosecution and the defence. “The verdict
of the court, as the judge himself stated was based on the evidence before the
court. It is not for the court to manufacture evidence nor is it possible for
it to find any person guilty except the prosecution proves its case
accordingly.” He blamed the police for bungling the case. Chief Gani
Fawehinmi, SAN, spoke in the same, saying the court’s judgment must be
obeyed, and that if the prosecution was dissatisfied it should go on appeal.
Similarly, Osun State chairman of the Alliance for Democracy (AD), Alhaji
Moshood Olalekan stated that there was nothing anyone could do than to accept
the judgment of the court. He noted that it was up to prosecution to decide
whether to appeal or not. “My position is that we have to accept the
verdict, but if the prosecution wishes to appeal, it is left for it to do
so.”
Meanwhile, Keyamo has urged the Oyo
State Government to appeal the discharge and acquittal of Omisore. “I am
encouraging the prosecution to go on appeal,” he said, “and if I am
called at any stage of the appeal process to assist, I will do so. This is
because I am not comfortable with the judgment. It is a disaster to the
judiciary and most importantly to the Nigerian Police. He disagreed with the
judge that the inability of the prosecution to produce a documentary evidence
(tape), where Omisore threatened the late Ige was part of the insufficient data
he was provided with. He went further to carpet the judge on the complaints
that the police failed to investigate other “useful areas, like the
AD/Afenifere connection” as according to him, there were enough hardcover
evidence to work on the Omisore theory.
