By Editor
The last Monday’s landmark judgement convicting an officer of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) Babatunde Festus Ojo and three others namely; Adeleke Lasisi Dauda, Ariyo Olabanji and Ajisafe Gbenga to two years in prison, has continued to elicit interest and a source of public discuss within Ado Ekiti and the environs giving credence to the judiciary as the last hope of the common man
The four accused were found guilty for multiple charges of conspiracy, assault occasioning harm and forcible entry in a ruling delivered by Hon Justice O.O. Olarawura sitting at Ikere Ekiti.
Inside sources however revealed to our correspondent that the accused had earlier in 2025 been found guilty of serial land grabbing and forcible encroachment of massive expanse of land belonging to the Olotin family of Ado Ekiti.
Elder statesman and the head of Olotin family Chief Michael Osaloni in an exclusive interview with Ekiti Standard disclosed that his family instituted a court action against the accused in 2024 over what he described as unjust encroachment and selling of family lands by the convicted men with reckless abandon even though they shared a common boundary.
According to him; “This case dated back to 2007 when these boys were teenagers then and started selling our family land. We were before Justice Lowe, now late. I won them in the court, it was a consent. But when they knew that they were fighting a lost battle, all of their family came to my chieftaincy house to come and appeal to me. From there we reached an agreement signed by our two lawyers but they reneged on the gentlemen’s agreement and continued with the nefarious act of selling our ancestral land.
On what led to the present criminal case that was determined last Monday, Chief Osaloni hinted that on the fateful day around 2024, the accused were on a mission to sell the family land when they met one of his staff working on the farm and immediately they matchetted him beating him to the point of coma.
The court in a copy of judgement paper made available to our correspondent in unmistakable terms ruled as follows; “The unchallenged evidence before it was that the defendants and others entered into the land of Olotin family armed with cutlasses and sticks and physically assaulted the victim which was ascertained by a medical report and evidence of two witnesses.
“By jointly going into the land fully armed, it can be inferred that all the defendants had formed a scheme or a common purpose, agreed and their minds met to jointly commit the offence of assault on their victim occasioning harm and forcible entry into the land of Chief Michael Osaloni and Olotin family. Conspiracy has therefore been proved beyond reasonable doubt”
“The defendants are each sentenced to two years in prison for conspiracy, assault occasioning harm and forcible entry. The sentences are to run concurrently”
