Olalekan Oyeyemi, a member of the Osun State Park Management System and appointee of Governor Ademola Adeleke, have been remanded in the Ile-Ife Correctional Centre following proceedings at the Federal High Court in Osogbo.
The Nigeria Police Force brought forward an 11-count charge against Oyeyemi, stemming from an incident in 2023 where he was alleged to have brutally beaten a man into a state of unconsciousness.
During the court session, as Oyeyemi was being arraigned and the charges were about to be read, his legal representative, Edmund Biriomoni, raised a critical concern regarding the jurisdiction of the court to adjudicate on the matter.
Biriomoni specifically challenged the court’s competence to hear certain counts against his client, notably those related to murder. He revealed that a preliminary objection had been filed against the murder charges.
Biriomoni articulated, “We are challenging the jurisdiction of the court to entertain the matter. We are challenging the jurisdiction of the court to take the plea of the defendant on Counts 4 to 8, which bother on murder.”
He further emphasized that a preliminary objection had been submitted in response to the murder charges initially filed.
In response, the prosecutor, Umar Usman from the Force Headquarters in Abuja, requested the court to withdraw the previous charge filed on October 16, 2023, and replace it with an amended charge dated January 31, 2024.
Despite objections raised by the defense counsel, the court accepted the amended charge, allowing the prosecutor to proceed.
Justice Nathaniel Ayo-Emmanuel ruled in favor of withdrawing and substituting the charge. Subsequently, Oyeyemi was remanded in the Ile-Ife Correctional Centre.
The defense counsel was encouraged to formally file an application challenging the amended charge on behalf of his client.
However, the court set the next hearing for March 5.
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