Magistrate Under Fire Over Threat To Life Accusation

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The allegation of threat to life by a Lagos State Magistrate, Mrs Adeola Adedayo, has assumed a new dimension as the accused persons in the case before her have petitioned the Chief Judge of Lagos State, Justice Funmilayo Atilade, to investigate the allegations in the bid to ascertain the truth as they accused the magistrate of personal use of the instruments of state to deny them of their fundamental human rights.

The accused persons claimed that the lawyer that petitioned the police which led to their arrest, detention, and arraignment, Mr Charles Nwadiani, is the live in lover of the magistrate.

Sulaiman and Kehinde Sanusi, two of the children of the late business and steel merchant, Chief Abdul Razak Sanusi, are currently standing trial before Chief Magistrate Adedayo of the Igbosere Chief Magistrates’ Court for allegedly being in possession of firearms and disrespecting  the order of court, in what started as a family dispute over inheritance.

On April 13, 2015 when the case came up in court, the magistrate raised an alarm that her life was under threat as she had received letters at her residence from the suspects. She alleged in open court that she felt very threatened.

According to her in the presence of journalists and others in the court, “Let the world know about it so that if anything happens to me and any member of my family the whole world will know who to hold.”

She said further: “Somebody is alleged to be in possession of firearms and he wrote letters to threaten my life, analyzing my marital status, my family background, where I live and who I live with and how I move in and out daily.”

However, in their petition to the Chief Judge, the Sanusi brothers said that these are weighty allegations against their persons which must be thoroughly investigated by the Judicial Service Commission, and the Office of the Attorney General of Lagos State.

The petition which was signed by Mr Kehinde Sanusi stated: “We are sad and distressed over this baseless accusations as they are calculated to paint us as criminals to the public. Unless this charge is transferred to and heard by another magistrate, we stand convicted by Mrs Adedayo even before the trial starts before her.”

The petitioners reminded the Chief Judge of their petition to her office dated October 29, 2014 wherein they accused the magistrate of acting the script of one of their siblings, Ms Tola Sanusi, a Deputy Director in the State Ministry of Justice currently on posting to the Lagos State Safety Commission.

The petitoners accused the duo of Adedayo and Sanusi of using their position as officers in the temple of justice to oppress and deny them of their fundamental human rights. They equally stated that despite their crying out to the Chief Judge, and the Attorney General, Mr Ade Ipaye, through their petitions last year, both offices ignored their petition. They believed that if their petition had been treated, the accusations of the magistrate would not have happened.

In the 2014 petition, Sulaiman Sanusi alleged that their sibling, Tola Sanusi, is using her connections in the system to “unlawfully oppress and intimidate, and compel us to relinquish control the management of our father’s company to her”.

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He alleged that he was arrested and detained by officers of the Zone 2 of the Nigerian Police over allegations that he defrauded his father’s company that he manages to the tune of N6 billion. The following day October 17, 2014, he was arraigned before Magistrate Adedayo at Igbosere Magistrates’ court at 2.30 pm, on a totally different charge of showing disrespect to a court order and possession of firearms.

He stated that in the process of his arrest, the police searched his office and took possession of a dane gun, a family relic displayed in their late father’s office. For this reason, he was charged with possession of fire arms.

He claimed that rather than signing their production warrant to ensure their bail, the magistrate used her private door and left the court premises. Because of this, they were taken to Ikoyi prisons where they spent three days.

In a further petition dated December 2, 2014, Suleiman Sanusi in a further petition to the Chief Judge as the Chairman of the Judicial Service Commission, on the same subject stated against the magistrate:

“That the lawyer, Charles Nwadiani, whose petition led to my arrest by the X Squad, Zone 2 is a live in partner of your Chief Magistrate Adedayo and employed solely for their dirty purpose;

“That there was and a relationship still exists between Magistrate Adedayo and Tola Sanusi, a deputy director at the Lagos State Safety Commission, who is a party in the family inheritance dispute; and

“Those on Friday October 17, 2014, before our arraignment, Tola Sanusi, Afusat Bunmi Ibraheem, and their mother, Alhaja Rashida Sanusi were spotted leaving your Chief Magistrate Adedayo’s chambers at Igbosere magistrate court.”

The petitioners further stated that despite the fact that the police ballistic report on the dane gun stated that the gun is “unserviceable” the advice from the Directorate of Public Prosecutions (DPP) mischievously stated that the gun was a “shot gun” all in a bid to persecute them at all costs.

The police ballistic report signed by ASP Eammu Jeremiah stated thet “the fire arm is identified on examination as a dane gun designed to use percussion caps to ignite; it has a ramming rod. The length of the barrel is 46” and the overall length is 64”. It looks old and rusty because of poor preservation. The rust has eaten deep into the mechanism that the hammer and the trigger are stiff and therefore render the firearm unserviceable.”

They therefore urged the Chief Judge to “save our soul” by investigating the threat to life allegations of Magistrate Adedayo and also transfer the case to another court”.

The case comes up again on May 11, 2015.

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