Court denies bail to ‘Isese’ religion activist, Tani Olohun despite remand

A Chief Magistrate Court in Kwara State, situated in Ilorin, the capital of Kwara State, has rejected the bail application filed by Adegbola Abdulazeez, an Isese (traditional religion) practitioner and activist popularly known as Tani Olohun.

SaharaReporters gathered this information from a ruling delivered by the court on Tuesday morning.

The court based its decision on the refusal of the bail application on the belief that granting bail to the applicant, Tani Olohun, carried a high risk of him absconding, and a significant portion of the application submitted by his lawyer was found to be plagiarized.

Recall that the police in Kwara State, located in North Central Nigeria, verified that the warrant used to apprehend Adegbola Abdulazeez was counterfeit.

SP Okasanmi Ajayi, the spokesperson for the state police command, had stated that the command had no knowledge of the court that issued the warrant for Tani Olohun’s arrest.

In August, human rights activist Omoyele Sowore revealed that the Nigerian police arrested Tani Olohun using a fake warrant.

Sowore, the candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC) in the 2023 presidential election, disclosed that the police had requested the state government’s permission to prosecute Tani Olohun without involving the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP).

“#FreeTaniOlorun: The charade by special interests in Ilorin to secretly jail Tani Olohun exposed, first they got a fake arrest warrant from Area Court to get him arrested, now asking state govt to let them prosecute him without involving the DPP’s office,” Sowore had posted on his Facebook page.

Tani Olohun was arraigned before a magistrate court in Ilorin on August 17 and was further remanded until October 5. However, when asked about the origin of the alleged warrant, Ajayi stated that he had no information.

SaharaReporters also documented that prison authorities in Kwara State denied family members and activists access to Tani Olohun, who was remanded by a magistrate court in Ilorin.