An Oyo State Chief Magistrate’s Court sitting in Ogbomoso, has sentenced a former member of the House of Representatives, Dr. Folaranmi Oyebamiji, to one year and four months in prison for conspiracy, false publication, forgery, threat to murder an Oko High Chief and his family, as well as conduct likely to cause breach of peace.
Chief Magistrate Muideen Salami, who delivered the judgement on Thursday, however, gave Oyebamiji a N500,000 fine option.
According to our correspondent, Salami sentenced the convict to six months on conspiracy with an option of N150,000; three months for false publication/defamation with an option of N150,000 fine; six months for forgery with an option of N100,000 fine; and one month for threat to murder with a fine of N100,000. The sentence was to run concurrently, according to the Chief Magistrate.
Oyebamiji, who represented Surulere /Ogo-Oluwa Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives, was arraigned in 2021 by the Oyo State Police Command alongside a 94-year old Oko traditional title holder, Mathew Wojuade Ademola, and five others. The others are Wojuade Gbemiga, Wojuade Philip, Bello Semiu Opeyemi, Eyolade Joshua Adewumi, and Adeniyi Idowu. They were charged with alleged conspiracy to murder High Chief Solomon Ojedayo in Oko town, a suburb of Ogbomoso.
While the prosecutor, Mr M.A. Ojei, represented the Commissioner of Police, Dr. Olutayo Oyewale was the counsel to the complainant, while Prince Niran Oyekale represented the defendants.
After the prosecution had called five witnesses against the defendants, the six other defendants except Oyebamji informed the court on December 22, 2023 through Oyewale, that they had deposed to separate affidavits in Ibadan High Court Registry in which they had settled with the complainant, High Chief Ojedayo. Their names were subsequently struck out from the suit, leaving Oyebamji to open his defence to the allegation brought against him.
At the conclusion of the trial and submission of written addresses by both Ojei and Oyekale, the court on Thursday reviewed the case and found Oyebamiji guilty of all the charges against him.
The convict had given an alibi during trial that at the material time he was said to have committed the offences, he was involved in an accident and was admitted at the UCH, Ibadan on December 17, 2019 and discharged on January 18, 2020 before returning to Oko on the June 27, 2020. He, however, said that he did not disclose this information to the Police in Ibadan and Zone 11 Command, Osogbo, because he was not asked such question.
The court discountenanced his claim of alibi, saying that he only imported such as an excuse during the trial amounting to after-thought.
“The accused person only tendered his photograph with crutches, neck girdle, without vehicle inspection report of the accident. There was no photo of the accidented vehicle to support his defence. The alibi, according to decided authorities must have been promptly and lucidly disclosed to the police during investigation. It is the considered opinion of this court that the alibi is an after-thought which cannot avail the accused person,” the Magistrate said.
The prosecution also alleged that Oyebamji on his Facebook account had “threatened the lives of Chief Solomon Ojedayo and his household by sending defamatory and threatening messages to his phone via Facebook that his life will soon be over as it cost him nothing to eliminate him and his household. He had also described High Chief Solomon Ojedayo as “Sosoliso Ojedidakuda, Olowo Igbo” on the Facebook,” an act considered as defamatory.
Though he denied referring to the complainant as “Sosoliso Ojedidakuda,” claiming that he is a writer, a poet and author, who could use words figuratively, the Court held that the coincidence of the name simulation with the reference drawn, was meant to disparage the complainant, and therefore the prosecution proved its case against him.
Having reviewed the four issues raised from the written addresses of the prosecution and the defence, Chief Magistrate Salami resolved that “the evidence, both oral and written, weighed against the defendant. So, the prosecution had manifestly proved its case against the defendant. The 7th accused person is therefore found guilty and is accordingly convicted.”
In his allocutus, Oyebamiji’s counsel, Niran Oyekale, pleaded for leniency, saying: “I apply to the magnanimity of the court to temper justice with mercy. All along the proceedings, the convict had suffered greatly by having to be remanded in police custody. He is a family man whose dependants will suffer greatly if he is thrown into the Correctional Centre. He has children still schooling, and he is a political figure. I shall be praying the court to award an option of fine as there is no record of his being a convict before.”
In his final judgement, the Chief Magistrate sentenced the former parliamentarian to sixteen months imprisonment with an option of N500,000.
