Court remands NURTW chairman for alleged murder

An Ebute-Meta Chief Magistrate’s Court, Lagos State, has ordered the remand of the Chairman of Meiran branch of the National Union of Road Transport Workers, Mr. Wasiu Onibudo, for alleged murder.

The Chief Magistrate, A.F.O. Botoku, who gave the order on Friday, said the defendant should be remanded pending legal advice from the Directorate of Public Prosecutions.

The police prosecutors, Mr. Godwn Osuyi of the State Department of Criminal Investigation, Yaba, and the resident prosecutor, Daniel Ighodalo, had filed an application for Onibudo’s remand.

Osuyi had informed the court that the accused was alleged to have conspired with others now at large to kill one Taiwo Ogunlaja, by stabbing him to death.

He said the accused committed the offence during an NURTW’s meeting on December 3, 2015, at the union’s headquarters on the Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway, Ile-Epo, Lagos.

While urging the court to remand Onibudo, Osuyi said the police’s remand application was supported with a 10-paragraph affidavit, deposed to by one Inspector Bartholomew Ali of the Inspector-General of Police Monitoring Unit, Abuja.

Attached with the charge sheet was also a petition written to the police by the plenary solicitors, the deceased photograph, medical certificate of cause of the death and a statement of a witness, Ahmed Balogun.

He said his application was brought pursuant to Section 264 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Law of Lagos State, 2011.

But the lawyer to the accused, Spurgeon Ataene, prayed the court to reject the police’s remand application by considering Section 264 (1)(2)(3)(4)(5)(9) and (10) of the ACJLL, 2011.

The section, he said, gave the magistrate power to look into the circumstances surrounding the accused person’s action, which would determine if the remand application filed against him would be granted or not.

“I urge this court that after looking into the circumstances and not being satisfied, my client should be admitted to bail in liberal terms,” he added.

But the Chief Magistrate, Botoku, dismissed the objection raised by Ataene and ordered that the accused be remanded in prison custody for the first 30 days, pending when the DPP would issue an advice on the matter.

She asked the police to duplicate the case file and forward same to the DPP for advice.

The matter was adjourned till February 29, 2016.