How Lagos Chief Disappears In Court

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Crack detectives attached to the force Criminal Investigation Departement (FCID), Alagbon Close, Ikoyi, Lagos, were speechless recently as an accused person they brought to court "disappeared" shortly before arraignment.
It was a typical case of "the more you look, the less see" when team leader, Mr. Isiaka Babarinsa, a lwayer and a Duputy


Superintendent of Police (DSP), tried unsuccessfully to explain to an embarrassed magistrate that the accused person, He Chief Abiodun Olushin, whom he brought from the station and had already filed two separate criminal charges against, had escaped from his custody right inside the court room.

What led to the drama started sometime last year when a notice issued on behalf of the run-away accused by his lawyer, was pasted on his property in Sogunle area of Oshodi/Ikeja in Lagos, ordering their owners to repurchase the land from him as he had been vested with power of attorney to oversee the sale of the land in the area. One of the persons affected by the notice, Yekini Abdul whose land had already been fenced, was ask to repurchase the land for N1 million, but he allegedly paid N200,000olushin.

Apart from forcefully demanding the receiving money, the chief was also accused of using a pump action refile gun to cause panic and terrir within his neighbourhood.
Abduk lodged a complaint on the incessant harassment at the Oshodi Police Station, following which Olushi was invited for questioning, But the matter was eventually transferred to the FCID, Alagbon. There, Olushin was said to have alleged that his life was being threatened.

It was learnt that at the conclusion of investigation, the police discovered that Chief Olushin's complaint was baseless and subsequently filed two separate charges against him.
He was accused of giving false information to the police that his life was being threatened. This led to the arrest and detention of some people. It was also stated in the charge sheet that he forcily gained entrance into a parcel of land, which was in peaceful possesion of Abdul and also demaned from him the sum of N200,000, In the second criminal Charge, Olushin was alleged to have unlawfully possessed a pump action riffle, without the permission of the Inspector-General of Police. he was said to have been using the riffle to terrorise his neighbours, while conducting himself in a manner likely to cause a breach of peace.

However, on the day of the trial, Olushin, who reported at Alagbon having been released on police bail, was immediately moved before Magistrate Court 12, at the Igbosere Chief Magistrate Court. The accused was already in the courtroom with his lawyer, waiting for the court to run through the list before his arraignment. When the case was eventually called, he was nowhere to be found.

Proawcuting Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), Told the court that he couldn't have placed the accused under surveillance since he was on police bail.

The Police later towed the accused person's jeep, which was parked in the court premises, away to Force CID.