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Justice K. B. Olawoyin of the Oyo State High Court, on Monday discharged and acquitted Chief Bisi Ilaka, the Chief of Staff to the governor of Oyo State, of a murder charge preferred against him in a case instituted by the state government in 2018.
Delivering judgment, Justice Olawoyin agreed with the no case submission of Ilaka’s counsel, Abiodun AbdulRaheem and freed Ilaka of all the eight-count charge brought against him.
The judge also ordered the police to return Ilaka’s licensed pump-action firearm and other items collected from him before the commencement of the trial.
AbdulRaheem, who is a commissioner-nominee in the state, had in his no-case submission argued that the quality of evidence tendered and the testimonies of the five prosecution witnesses called during the trial did not establish a prima facie case against his client.
He asked the court to consequently determine whether the evidences led by the prosecution linked Ilaka to “all the ingredients of the offences alleged and whether the quality of evidence adduced is such that a court can safely convict on.”
Newspeakonline recalls that Ilaka, alongside his security attaché, Temitayo Alamiyo got into trouble over a shooting that occurred at the palace of the Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi, during the Orayan festival on September 8, 2018, in which three people died.
Ilaka, then the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate for Oyo Central Senatorial election was said to have been waylaid by hoodlums during the festival and in the ensuing melee, his SUV was damaged.
He and Alamiyo were remanded in Agodi prison where they were held for 18 days before they were granted bail a few days before the primary election for which he emerged unopposed.