Royal family seeks prosecution of detained Lagos monarch

As pressures mount on the Commissioner of Police, Lagos State Police Command, CP Hakeem Odumosu, to release the detained traditional ruler of Olarinde Ajoa Oluekun royal stool, Latifu Olarinde, and his son, Yusufu Olarinde, the Oba-elect, Modiu Olarinde and the eldest sister of the ruling family, Alhaja Fausat Olarinde, has urged the police not to yield to undue pressure to release the suspects.
 
The duo, who spoke at the command headquarters, Ikeja, after submitting a petition to that effect to CP Odumosu, said all they want is justice so that they would be able to go back to their ancestral land again.

They added that the suspects, with others at large, had chased them out of their ancestral land and continued to make life unbearable for them.
“We are aware that certain characters who had benefited immensely through illegal allotment of our ancestral land from Latifu Olarinde, one of us from another linage, are hell-bent to see him and his son, currently detained by the police for murder and wanton destruction of properties, off the hook.
 
“They are doing this because they know that if he is removed from the throne, which he ascended through the instrument of force and violence, they would lose their allotted land. So, they are doing all they can to make him come out of detention and go back to the community. But we on our own would not relent. This is why we are begging the CP Hakeem Odumosu verbally and through a petition from retired DIG Lakanu Chambers to ensure that justice is done.   
 
“We know the CP to be a man of integrity that he should not smear his image built over the years for whatever reason and allow this man who had caused sorrow to many families within Abule-Ado, Vin-Niger in Satellite Town and neighbouring communities to walk free without justice.”
 
Two weeks ago, operatives of the Lagos police command arrested the wanted monarch of Oguntade Village and his son, Prince Yusuf, alleged to be responsible for violent attacks on people and properties in Satellite Town, Amuwo Odofin. Olarinde was arrested at his hideout in Ile-Epo, several months after he fled to Benin Republic in the wake of a manhunt for him.
 
They were declared wanted by Police Commissioner, Hakeem Odumosu, after series of petitions from residents, warehouse owners and truck drivers, who accused the monarch and his sons of harbouring and unleashing armed thugs on people who refused to be extorted by them.