Lawyer stands for boy arrested while charging phone

An Abuja based lawyer Hameed Jimoh has volunteered to represent the young man arrested by police two years ago and incarcerated for a crime he denied knowledge of.

Jimoh, who had gone to Keffi Prison to see Rotimi Adeosebekan, 28, and his co-defendants, filed a notice of legal representation under Section 36(6)(C) of the Constitution before a Federal High Court in Abuja.

According to the application made available to The Nation, Jimoh would be representing Adeosebekan, Adeniran Joseph, Emmanuel Banti and Thompson Samaruna in suit FHR/ABJ/CR/218/2017 brought against seven persons by the Inspector General of Police.

According to Jimoh, he was undertaking the case pro bono and with collaboration from a Lagos-based non-governmental organisation (NGO) Stephen and Solomon Fiundation.

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The Nation penultimate week reported the pathetic story of Adeosebekan whose aged mother Mrs. Folasade made a Safe Our Soul (SOS) plea to President Muhammadu Buhari, public-spirited Nigerians to intervene in an alleged oppression, abuse of power and outright victimisation by a powerful lawyer.

Adeosebekan, currently being held at Keffi Prisons in Nasarawa State, was whisked away from his friend’s house in Victoria Island where he had gone to charge his phone on November 15, 2017.

He was arrested alongside five others by defunct Federal Special Anti-Robbery Squad (FSARS) operatives from Abuja at the instance of the lawyer who accused them of kidnapping, terrorism, armed robbery among other charges, allegations he had repeatedly denied.

Those arrested with him were Adeniran Joseph, Ismaila Fasasi, Emmanuel Banti, Olayinka John and Thompson Samaruna, while Kolawole Shehu was arrested 15 days afterwards at Ajegunle and moved to Nasarawa prisons.

It was gathered that their accuser had been embroiled in a property dispute with one Segun Babaloye, a son of his late landlord.

Shehu who worked as a guard at the house in dispute, said the lawyer claimed to have bought the property from the owner when he was alive, a development that caused a disagreement between him and the late owners’ children.

“My boss is Segun Babaloye. He is the son of the late landlord and was the one who employed us as guards at the house. What happened was that the old man contracted the lawyer to manage the place for him.

“The lawyer was his tenant as well. But when the man died, he told his children he had bought the property from their father, which they denied and the matter went to court. Instead of pursuing the matter in court to logical conclusion, the lawyer turned around and used SARS men from Abuja to arrest those of us working there as security, our visitors and even innocent people outside.