Ismaeel Uthman
FOURTEEN years after he was alleged of complicity in the killing of a 27-year-old hunchback, Taibat Oseni, in Iragbiji, Boripe local government of the State of Osun, a former member of the National Assembly, Senator Felix Ogunwale, has revealed how he managed the crisis and avoided incarceration.
Ogunwale, popularly known as Jumokol, declared that the allegation was a deep political plot by former governor Olagunsoye Oyinlola to implicate him and take him out of the Osun Central Senatorial race.
The Asiwaju of Iragbiji claimed that when he made moves inside the police station to frustrate the plan to hurriedly arraign him in court and get him remanded in prison, those who were persecuting him sent ‘some people to kidnap’ him while in police custody.
According to Ogunwale, he escaped being kidnapped by hiding under the staircase of the police station.
He spoke in an exclusive interview with Etioba, an online television platform.
It would be recalled that Oseni, the lady with an hunchback, was reportedly killed on Tuesday, September 29, 2009.
She was said to have been dragged by her assailants to an abandoned building owned by Ogunwale at about 10.30 p.m. where she was murdered.
The allegation came barely four months after Ogunwale defected from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the Action Congress (AC).
Three suspects were also arrested by the police in connection with the incident
According to the police, the hunch of the purported deceased was recovered from Asimiyu Kolapo, Mukaila Kolawole and Isaac Ayandokun, the arrested suspects.
However, Ogunwale disclosed that Oseni was later found alive in Ore, Ondo State after he was released from police custody on the directive of the then Inspector General of Police.
Ogunwale said: “I thank God! A very bitter and deep politics was played during that time. Why I said that is that after everything was settled, and Oyinlola and I were becoming friends again, I asked why he wanted to implicate me, but he couldn’t utter a word. He was speechless till I left his home.
“The issue of the hunchback murder was so shocking to me. I was in Lagos when I heard that a certain hunchback was missing and her dead body was found at the backyard of my house. I had rented out the said house to Boripe Local Government council for about two years then when Mr Bimbo was the Council Chairman. There was an agreement to that effect; but those who wanted to implicate me insisted that it was my house.
“In my usual character, I will always clear myself when there is frivolous allegation against me. So, I left Lagos to Osogbo and I headed to the office of the Commissioner of Police, Mr Johnson Moronike. I presented myself to him and he thanked me; he immediately called a Deputy Commissioner of Police at the State Criminal Investigation Department. I was taken to the SCID and detained behind the counter.
“There was a police officer that usually handle dirty and political assignments for Oyinlola then; he is now late. He usually incarcerated people and put them in prison without any trial before the court.”
OSUN DEFENDER noted that the only police officer who was notorious for prosecuting political cases during the Oyinlola administration was Mr. Ayuba Adekunle. He was a Deputy Superintendent of Police, and a prosecutor; he died few years after he was transferred out of the state.
Ogunwale added: “That particular police officer was known for persecution, shady deals and sudden arraignment of suspects in court. Their usual practice then was that they had arrangement with a Magistrate and upon appearance of suspect at his court, he would just adjourn the case and order that the suspect be remanded in prison custody either in Ilesa or Ife for months.
“While I was being detained, I suspected that they wanted to take me to court; it was then I knew Oyinlola meant to deal with me. I made a move and they got to know about it, and because of that, they arranged some people to kidnap me from the police station.
“I hid under the staircase where they kept empty bottles. I stuck myself inside the empty bottles. Those they sent to kidnap me ransacked everywhere but they could not find me, and they left.
“The following morning, there was a team from the Inspector General of Police who directed that both the suspect (myself) and the case file be transferred to the force headquarters in Abuja.
“Moronike, the then Commissioner of Police acted mischievously and it was his conduct that prevented me from being transferred to Abuja. When the IG team arrived and Moronike was given the signal, he snuck out of office and we could not locate him for five hours.
“The IG team waited for him patiently because he must sign the file. We did not know who he went to meet but we knew he was at the Government House.
“By the time he came back, he signed the file and we left to board the helicopter that brought the IG team. While leaving to board, a police officer arrived on a motorcycle and rushed inside the office. He was told we were leaving for Abuja already and he rushed to catch us up. He handed over the result of a forensic test on the purported hunch which was taken to Aragbiji’s palace as an evidence of the person I allegedly killed.
“The result indicated that what was brought for test was a male kidney; the hunchback I was accused of killing was a female. Then the team called Abuja and narrated what happened to their boss. He was furious on the phone; he declared that the case was political and he ordered that I should be released on self recognizance. I filled the bail bond and I was released from there.
“Thereafter, I called Gani Adams, the National Coordinator of Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC). I told him to fish out the said hunchback I was accused of killing, because her dead body was not found. Gani Adams acted on it and he set machinery in motion.
“Three days later, the said hunchback was found in Ore, Ondo State. She was tracked for two weeks after which we reported to the police and she was arrested and transferred to Abuja. But the statement she made at the police station in Ore was kept away from us.
“I went to Abuja to see her; I confronted her and unfortunately, she said she didn’t know me. She was later brought to Iragbiji and that sparked rumpus in the whole town. That was the end of the story.”
