An Oyo State Chief Magistrate’s Court sitting in Ogbomoso town, on Thursday, sentenced an ex-parliamentarian, Folaranmi Oyebamiji, to one year and four months imprisonment, having found him guilty of conspiracy, false publication, forgery, threat to murder an Oko town High Chief and his households, as well as, conduct likely to cause breach of peace.
Chief Magistrate Muideen Salami, however granted the convict a fine of N500,000 in lieu of the sentence.
In his judgment, he sentenced the convict to six months imprisonment on count of conspiracy with option of N150,000; three months for count two of false publication/defamation with fine of N150,000; six months for the offence of forgery with option of fine of N100,000; and one month for the offence of threat to murder with a fine of N100,000. The sentence was to run concurrently, the Chief Magistrate ordered.
The former House of Representatives member from Ogbomoso South had been earlier been arraigned in 2021 by the Oyo State Police Command along with a 94-year old Oko traditional title holder, Mathew Wojuade Ademola, and five others. They included 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 in the charge marked
MOG/190c/2021, Olutayo Oyewale holds the watching brief for the complainant, while Niran Oyekale represented the defendants.
After the prosecution had called five witnesses against the defendants, the six other defendants except Oyebamiji 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 Solomon Ojedayo.
Their names were therefore struck out from the charge, leaving Oyebamiji to open his defence to the charge brought against him.
The prosecution had 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.
At the conclusion of the trial and submission of written addresses by both Ojei and Ojekale, the court reviewed the case and found the ex-lawmaker guilty of all the counts.
Having reviewed the whole 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, declaring that “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 Ojekale, pleaded for leniency, saying that “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.”
The convict was subsequently moved to the Abolongo Correctional Centre in Oyo town pending the settlement of the N500,000 option of fine.
