Illegal arrest and detention of Muslim Cleric in Oyo State, Lawyer Petitions IG
PETITION AGAINST OYO STATE POLICE COMMISSIONER IN RESPECT OF PERSECUTION, ILLEGAL ARREST AND DETENTION OF THE CHIEF IMAM OF OGBOORO AND FOR AN ATTEMPT TO PROSECUTE HIM FOR OFFENCES ALLEGEDLY COMMITTED BY UNKNOWN PERSONS
I act as Solicitor to the Muslim Community of Ogbooro, in Saki East Local Government of Oyo State (hereinafter called my Clients and on whose behalf and authority I write this petition.
My Clients told me and I verily believed them that on the 11th day of November, 2015, they and some members of a Christian church were at the State Command of the Nigeria Police, Eleyele, Ibadan on the invitation by the Commissioner of Police, Oyo State.
For your information sir, the CP is a well known Pastor of the Redeemed Christians Church who has been inviting pastors to the Command for prayers and evangelism.
We heard it on good authority that the Commissioner used to say that
whoever does not submit himself to the pastors who came there on daily basis to pray and worship is against him.
The brief facts of the incident leading to the writing of this petition was that sometimes in the 1990, the Kabiyesi, Oba Salami Adedokun Adeteru III, granted to my clients a parcel of land approximately 48.34 Hectares (119.441 Acres) for use as cemetery, Islamic center and other purposes. The land is situate, lying and being along Ogbooro/Igboho road, Alarun, Ogbooro, Saki east Local Govt. was allocated to the Ogbooro Muslim Community by the Onisambo of Ogbooro , Oba Salami Adedokun Adeteru I.
The fact can also not be denied that the Kabiyesi also granted a parcel of land around the same area but at the opposite side of the Muslim land to the Christian Community of Ogbooro.
Both Communities have since the time of the grant been in physical possession of their land without any let or hindrance from any person or group of persons howsoever.
To the chagrin of the Muslims however, sometimes in October 2015, they saw sign post (with inscription of Olorunda Baptist Church) erected on their land by people suspected to be members of the Baptist church. The leaders of the Muslim Community made a report to the Kabiyesi who was visibly angry at the erection of a sign post of a church on a parcel of land he allocated to the Muslim Community when in fact he had allocated a different portion to the Christian Community as well.
According to our clients, the Kabiyesi then asked for the whereabouts of the signpost and within few minutes thereafter, the signpost had been brought to and kept at a corner in the Palace.
A few days thereafter, the said members of the church trespassed to the land again by depositing few blocks, gravel and cement and were about to start construction of corner pieces. Upon the sighting of some Muslims who were returning from the burial ground, the said workmen of the church fled the area and abandoned their vehicle.
The workmen of the trespassers who had fled the area had ran to report at the police station that some hoodlums had chased them away from their land. It was the Divisional Police Officer of the area that invited the Chief Imam to the Station and informed of him of the incident. The Chief Imam neither instructed any person to chase any person away nor to disrupt the work of any workmen on the land. The Chief Imam being a man of peace went to the area of the land, inflated the vehicle abandoned by the workmen and personally drove it to the station in order to forestall the burning of the vehicle or its been used to commit crime.
Series of meetings had been held in the palace and also with the police at the Divisional Level and Area Command, Oyo but were frustrated by the Christians.
It was against this backdrop that the Commissioner of Police invited all the two sides to his office at Eleyele, Ibadan.
The Muslims and the Christians had seated since morning of that 11th November, 2015 in anticipation of the time the Commissioner would come in to start the meeting. When the time for Suhr came however, and the meeting had not commenced, the Muslims went for Solat Suhri and hurriedly returned to the Conference room to see that the meeting had commenced in their absence. It was then, we knew a script was been played.
By the time the Muslims returned to take their seats, one could visibly see the the ego of the Commissioner had been brushed and would probably take a pounce of flesh from the Muslims for daring to get up from their seats to go and pray.
The Commissioner did not hide his bias and disdain for the action of the Muslims, he roaringly said “ I would make sure some of did not go home todayâ€.
By the time, he turned to the Muslims to ask for their side of the story and the Chief Imam stood up, against all tenets of fair hearing, courtesy and protocol, the Commissioner did not allow the Chief Imam to make a complete sentence. The Commissioner intermittently threatened the Chief Imam with arrest, detention and prosecution even when all those who wanted to talk from the Muslims have not been heard.
As a lawyer, I managed to tell the CP that arresting and detaining the Chief Imam was not the best solution in the instant case. The CP cut me short and said he had made up his mind and that If I am not satisfied, I should prepare to defend the Chief Imam in the Court of Law.
I noticed that the CP then turned to the Christians and began to shower encomiums and praises on them for their patience as children of God. He assured them in my presence that he would deplore all his men to Ogbooro and that he would deal ruthlessly with the Muslims. He said though he is a christain, but he is not a Baptist. He dismissed the representatives of the Muslims and ordered the arrest and detention of the Chief Imam with immediate effect.
There and then, the chief Imam was whisked away in a police patrol van like a common criminal. When I sensed our people could inform the Muslims at home how the Imam was been treated, I quickly called a meeting of all our leaders there and appealed to them not to leak the information that the Imam was detained and we all reasoned along.
It was discovered that the Christians had left for Ogbooro, we advised the DPO, Mr. Oshodi to warn them not to enter the town amidst jubilation that the leader of their opponent had been arrested and detained, hence the Christians were asked to return to the CP office.
I put up several calls to the Governor of Oyo State as the Chief Security Officer and I sent text messages to inform him of the impending religious crisis due to the bias exhibited by the CP and the way he handled this issue.
The CP probably mistook the position of Chief Imam of a whole community for that of Imam Ratibi who can easily identify those who live within vicinity and worship in his mosque 5 times.
The CP must have mischievously considered the Chief Imam as a family head who knows, feeds and shelters every member of his family and can easily produce anyone of them needed at any given place and time. This is a gross misconception.
We must quickly place it on record that although the Chief Imam was lately released on bail on that day after the intervention of the Deputy Governor of Oyo State and the representatives of the Oyo State Muslim Community, he was nevertheless asked to sign an undertaking to produce unfailingly some names listed in the petition of the Christians as those suspected to have committed the alleged offences of malicious damage and conduct likely to cause breach of piece.
With utmost respect, this is an area which can not stand the test of law. It is arbitrary, uncivilized and unlawful to ask the Chief Imam, a spiritual leader not a law enforcement agent to produce suspects which the police themselves could not or have not arrested.
We also wish to state that none of the complainants in this case could identify any of the persons placed on the police wanted list neither could they say with categorical precision that they saw any of them committing the alleged offences.
In the light of the above, we urge your eminence to use your good offices to notify the appropriate authority on the activities of the Oyo state Police Commissioner so as not to precipitate religious crisis in Ogbooro township which may spread to other parts of Oyo State.
We have it on good authority that the CP does not like the Muslims probably because his wife according to him was once a Muslim. Its very common to see people who had once professed Islam and got converted to Christianity or had affinity with Islam to harbor prejudice against Muslims.
We therefore urge you to quickly intervene as the stage is set by the police to harrasss, intimidate, arrest, detain, persecute and prosecute the Muslim Leaders from Ogbooro today the 17th day of Nov, 2015.
Abdul Waheed Olatunde Lawal, LLB(Hons)Ife, BL(NLS-Lagos), PGDLD (NIALS) Lagos. Solicitor & Advocate of Supreme Court of Nigeria. MD/H.O.C W. O. Lawal & Company, (Aganmu Chambers) Legal Practitioners & Consultants, No. 68, Oyo Road,Samonda,Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria.