A former member of the House of Representatives, Folaranmi Oyebamiji, was sentenced to one year and four months in prison by an Oyo State Chief Magistrate’s Court on Thursday in Ogbomoso.
The court found him guilty of conspiracy, false publication, forgery, threatening to kill the high chief of Oko town and his households, and engaging in behaviour likely to disturb the peace, reports Persecondnews.
Chief Magistrate Muideen Salami, however, decided to substitute a N500,000 fine for the penalty given to the guilty party.
According to his ruling, the defendant was given six months in prison for the conspiracy charge, with a fine of N150,000; three months for the second count of false publication or defamation, with a fine of N150,000; six months for the forgery charge, with a fine of N100,000; and one month for the threat to murder charge, with a fine of N100,000.
The Chief Magistrate gave the order for the sentence to run consecutively.
The Oyo State Police Command had previously arraigned the former member of the House of Representatives from Ogbomoso South in 2021, together with Mathew Wojuade Ademola, a 94-year-old Oko traditional title holder, and five other individuals. Adeniyi Idowu, Bello Semiu Opeyemi, Eyolade Joshua Adewumi, Wojuade Gbemiga, and Wojuade Philip were among them.
They were accused of plotting to kill Ogbomoso suburb Oko Town’s High Chief Solomon Ojedayo.
As Mr Niran Oyekale represented the defendants, Mr Olutayo Oyewale held the watching brief for the complainant, and prosecutor Mr. M.A. Ojei represented the Commissioner of Police in the charge designated MOG/190c/2021.
The six other defendants, with the exception of Oyebamiji, informed the court on December 22, 2023, through Oyewale, that they had deposed to separate affidavits in the Ibadan High Court Registry, in which they had settled with the complainant, High Chief Solomon Ojedayo, following the prosecution’s call of five witnesses against the defendants.
As a result, the case was dropped against them, and Oyebamiji was free to refute the allegations made against him.
Additionally, according to the prosecution, Oyebamji “threatened the lives of Chief Solomon Ojedayo and his household by sending defamatory and threatening messages to his phone via Facebook that his life will soon be over as it cost him nothing to eliminate him.”
This was according to an allegation made on his Facebook account.
Following the trial and the filing of written statements by Ojei and Ojekale, the court considered the matter and determined that the former lawmaker was guilty on all counts.
Chief Magistrate Salami concluded that “the evidence, both oral and written, weighed against the defendant,” ruling that “the prosecution had manifestly proved its case against the defendant” after reviewing all four of the matters brought up in the written addresses of the prosecution and the defence.
As a result, the seventh accused party is declared guilty and convicted.
Niran Ojekale, Oyebamiji’s attorney, begged for clemency in his allocutus, saying, “I apply to the magnanimity of the court to temper justice with mercy.”
The offender had suffered severely throughout the trials due to being placed under police custody pending remand. If he is sent to the Correctional Centre, his dependents would suffer a significant deal because he is a family man.
After that, the prisoner was transferred to the Abolongo Correctional Centre in Oyo Town while the N500,000 option of fine was being settled.
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