Four men ;Olukayode Adeyemi Lisoyi, Chief Sikiru Olatunde Atobatele (Balogun of Egba), Mr Ade Kadejo and Mr Kabiru Adebesin, have been dragged before the Ogun State High Court over allegations bordering on malicious damage, intimidation and the alleged ill-treatment of a prominent community figure in Iboku-Aro, Obafemi-Owode Local Government Area.
The suit, filed at the Abeokuta Judicial Division, was instituted by Sunday Babatunde Aro-Oguntola, a block maker, farmer and heir apparent to the Baaleship of Iboku-Aro.
In his statement of claim, Aro-Oguntola alleged that the defendants, whom he described as non-indigenes, migrated into Iboku-Aro and later became land speculators involved in the unauthorised sale and forceful takeover of vast portions of communal land.
He told the court that the dispute escalated on June 21, 2021, when the defendants, through their counsel, S.T. Alausa, petitioned the Ogun State Commissioner of Police, accusing him and another Iboku-Aro indigene, Adesina Solarin Adetokunbo, of criminal defamation.
Aro-Oguntola claimed that following the petition, operatives of the State Criminal Investigation Department, Eleweeran, arrested him in Iboku-Aro and seized his mobile phones and tablet.
According to him, the police allegedly acted at the behest of the defendants and drove him through several towns, including Abeokuta, Ishara, Sagamu, Odogbolu, Ijebu-Ode, Ijebu-Igbo and Ife-Ijebu, before abandoning him at night in Sakpon village.
He further alleged that when he reported back to Eleweeran the following day as instructed, he and Adetokunbo were re-arrested and detained at the Eleweeran Divisional Police Headquarters.
The claimant accused the police of subjecting him and Adetokunbo to torture during detention, alleging that they were hung upside down in a bid to extract confessional statements.
He claimed that despite informing the officers that he could not write, a statement was allegedly drafted for him and he was compelled to sign it.
Aro-Oguntola further alleged that he was later taken before the Commissioner of Police in the presence of the defendants, where pressure was mounted on him to apologise and sign an undertaking to withdraw an earlier land suit, marked AB/126/2017, pending before the High Court.
He said both he and Adetokunbo rejected the demand, noting that the defendants in the current case are also parties in the Iboku-Aro land dispute.
The claimant alleged that following their refusal, they were further detained, tortured and paraded before being arraigned at a magistrates’ court in Iro, before the case was later transferred to the Owode-Egba Magistrates’ Court.
He told the court that while he was eventually discharged and acquitted of all five counts in the amended charges, Adetokunbo was given an option of a fine.
In the fresh suit before the High Court, Aro-Oguntola is asking the court to award ₦400 million as general damages for alleged malicious damage, intimidation and violation of his rights.
He is also seeking an order compelling the defendants to publish an unreserved apology in national newspapers, as well as an order directing them to pay ₦460,000 as compensation for his seized mobile devices.
The claimant further urged the court to grant any other reliefs it may deem fit in the circumstances.
As of the time of filing this report, trial is yet to commence.
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