Alfred Adegoke, the lawyer representing a Take It Back Movement activist, Mr Samson Tola at a High Court, Oke Fia, Osogbo, has said his client was arrested, detained and charged to court for no offence known to law.
The lawyer said Tola is a law-abiding citizen being punished by the police for his refusal to give a bribe or to allow himself to be extorted by policemen.
Adegoke revealed this to SaharaReporters on Monday in his reaction to the accusation the Osun State police command brought to court against Tola and others in Osogbo.
SaharaReporters has reported on December 10 that a member of the Take It Back Movement, Tola was brutalised and humiliated by the operatives of Dugbe Police Station, Osogbo.
Tola said he was unjustly arrested, battered and detained for no reason on November 15 around Olaiya area of Osogbo.
He also accused the police of not carrying out any investigation or questioning him before he was charged to court with other innocent people.
The police demanded N50,000 from him and he was charged to court when he and others refused to pay.
Speaking, Tola’s legal representative, Adegoke, said Tola and others were rounded up at a thoroughfare, and later unjustly accused of smoking marijuana.
“It is part of jurisprudential problem obstructing judicial system, and particularly in Osun State. According to my client, he said there was a particular area like a thoroughfare. He said he managed to pass because the government had blocked the main road.
“So, people had to pass the thoroughfare. And the police came there to come and pack the people plying the thoroughfare.
“But on getting to the court, they said they were smoking. Who are the witnesses? In their statements, they said they were not smoking Indian hemp. And no Indian hemp was found on them.
“There is no crime committed by any of the defendants. The policemen were there to harass people or used it as an opportunity to extort them. If these people had money and gave them as they had demanded, they wouldn’t have charged them to court.
“The only reason why they were in court was that they refused to bribe the police. The police are the complainants so this is not only about giving justice to my client and other people involved, but we are also going to condemn the injustice,” Adegoke said.
In his reaction, Tola told SaharaReporters that, “I’m an activist, and I fight for justice. I fight for the right of the common masses who don’t even believe they have a right. Activism would mean nothing if these people, especially the prosecuting counsel that was at the police station the night I was arrested go scot-free. He said he would make sure he deals with me for no reason.”
The case has been adjourned to February 4, 2020.
