Court remands 17 suspected killers of Lekki Free Trade Zone boss

Disu died from injuries he sustained when gunmen attacked him during a peace mission to one of the communities in the Free Trade Zone area in Ibeju Lekki on Monday.

The court ordered that the 17 suspects: Dele Ajayi; Alhaji Tajudeen Jegede; Saidi Akanni; Oyelade Taiwo; Sunday Bulus; Abiola Ogunsanwo; Okunaya Stephen; Taiwo Gafar; Agunrege Banji; Gafaru Ahmed; Moses Okoro; Talabi Quadri; Ipaye Oriyomi; Quadri Yusuf and Tunde Yusuf, be remanded in police custody for a period of 30 days pending further investigation by the police.

The Magistrate, Folashade Botoku, said they should be remanded for the police to conduct its investigation.
“Having listened to the arguments of both the prosecuting and the defence counsels, I quite agree with the defence on the issue of jurisdiction of this court to hear a case of murder against the suspects brought before this court”.

The magistrate, however, said what was brought before her was not a charge but an application to remand the suspects in custody to enable the police to conduct thorough investigation.

According to her, Section 264 of the Administration of Criminal Justice 2011 (Sections 1 and 2) empowers the court to entertain such application.

On the application for bail as requested by the counsel to the accused the Magistrate said that while section 264 empower the Court to grant the leave to remand the suspects in custody, the same section does not empower the court to grant the suspects bail since it lacks jurisdiction to hear murder case and cannot therefore consider the application for bail.

The prosecution further argued that Section 27 of the Magistrate Court Law 2009 empower the police to present before a magistrate court within a reasonable time person(s) arrested for murder.

He further argued that the court in its wisdom has the jurisdiction to grant the police an order to remand such suspects in custody for a minimum of 30 days.

It would be recalled that while the late Tajudeen Disu was murdered on Monday during a peace mission to one of the villages in the Ibeju Lekki area, the Chief Security Officer of the Lekki Free Trade Zone, Col Bala Usman (rtd) sustained serious injuries during the attack.