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Court remands Masquerade, 3 others for alleged murder

•Tenant poisons, kills security dog, 19 chickens

 

In a strange twist, an Osun High Court in Osogbo has ordered the remand of a Masquerade custodian, Kayode Esuleke , at the Ilesa Correctional Centre for the alleged murdered of a Muslim, Moshood Salawudeen.

 

The Presiding Judge, Justice Ayo Oyebiyi, ordered the defendant with his son, Ifasola Eseleke, and two others, Idowu Abimbola and Adeosun Kola, to be remanded in prison custody due to the magnitude of the alleged offence.

 

The prosecutor, Mr Abiodun Badiora, had told the court that the defendant, with his son and others committed the offence on June 27, at Arayin Street within Osogbo metropolis.

 

Badiora said the masquerade followers and the Muslim worshippers clashed at Kamarudeen Mosque, leading to the death of one person, with many injured and properties destroyed.

 

He said the offence committed contravened section 83, 249 (1)(d), 35, 320 (1)(2), 451, and 319 of the criminal code cap 34 , vol.11 , Laws of Osun, 2002 .

 

The defendants pleaded not guilty to the 13- count charge of murder, attempted murder, malicious damage, assault, breach of public peace and engaging in a public fight. The defence counsel, Mr Abimbola Ige, prayed the court to grant his clients bail in the most liberal terms .

 

Oyebiyi, however, overruled the bail application by the defence counsel and ordered their remand at the Ilesa Correctional Facility, while adjourning the case to September 21 for consideration of bail.

 

In another development, a landlady, Mrs Goodness Ukanwa, told a Grade I Area Court Kubwa, Abuja, that her tenant, Lateef Agbaje, poisoned and killed her 19 chickens and one security dog.

 

The police charged Agbaje of Dutse, Abuja, with mischief. Being led in evidence by the prosecution counsel, John Okpa, Ukanwa said the defendant threw dead rats and poisonous substance in the compound, sometime in May.

 

“My chickens and security dog fed on the substances and died. A little girl in the compound noticed my chickens were dying and tied substances they ate in a bag to prevent more chickens from dying.

 

“ I confronted the defendant over the issue and he told me that he put the poison to get rid of rats. “I asked him to show me the dead rats but he did not. His wife sympathised with me over the loss of my chickens but he scolded her for doing so, ” she said.

 

Ukanwa said that during the confrontation, the defendant said his wife does not like chickens and he would not have moved into my house if he knew I reared chickens.

 

“He called me names and we ended up at the police station. “A policewoman advised him to apologise but he told her that killing chickens was not a criminal case and that anything that would make him pay for the dead chickens would make him kill more.

 

“When he discovered that he was going to be taken to court, he apologised, saying he did not know I would take him to the police station. “I told him his apology is for settlement and I cannot bear the financial burden alone because I fed the chickens since April till date,” she said.

 

The prosecution counsel tendered the witness statement which was admitted as exhibit. The judge, Muhammad Adamu, adjourned the matter until October 21 for continuation of hearing.

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