Court orders Osun CP to arrest Oluwo, Oba Akanbi

A magistrate court sitting in Osogbo has ordered the Commissioner of Police in Osun State, Mr. Fimihan Adeoye, to arrest the Oluwo of Iwo, Oba Abdulrasheed Akanbi, and bring him to court on January 6, 2017.

The magistrate, Olusola Aluko, gave the fresh order on Friday when the case involving the monarch came up for hearing again.

He said he was surprised that the CP had not arrested the Oluwo since he first issued the bench warrant of arrest against the first-class monarch.

Aluko expressed dismay that the CP had not effected the bench warrant of arrest he issued against the monarch, which he said he signed and handed over to an officer of the state Police Command.

He said, “I am baffled that the Commissioner of Police has not done his duty. I am also surprised by his claim that he was unaware of the bench warrant. That must be a joke of the century. I, therefore, ordered him to immediately arrest the respondent.

“I am not joking with my order. He (Oba Akanbi) should be arrested and brought to this court on Friday, January 6, 2017. The sanctity of the judiciary must be protected.”

Aluko said the case instituted by the Oluwo Oke of Iwo Oke, Oba Kadiri Adeoye, against Oba Akanbi before his court was not a chieftaincy case but a criminal one.

He said, “I will like to say that the matter before me was filed, based on sections 35, 37 and 38 of the criminal procedures of Osun State.

“In a criminal case such as this, a defendant must appear in court. This court is not trying a chieftaincy matter. It is the law that once an order is made, to prevent anarchy,such order must be obeyed.

“It is to be noted that an order was first made by my brother, Magistrate Omisade of Iwo jurisdiction before the case was transferred here by fiat; and I had warned him (Oba Akanbi) three times to appear before this court.”

It will be recalled that the magistrate had, on December 2, threatened to issue a bench warrant against the Oluwo if he failed to appear before him on December 20th; but the monarch spurned the threat.

The magistrate then issued a bench warrant against the monarch on December 20 but the monarch said he would not appear before the magistrate.

Aluko had also issued a fresh bench warrant against the monarch on Wednesday for contempt of court, but the monarch still did not appear on Friday.

It may be recalled that the Oluwo of Iwo-Oke, Oba Kadiri Adeoye, had approached the Magistrate Court accusing Oba Akanbi of concealing from the state government some facts about his past when he was installed last year.

In a 33-paragraph affidavit, Oba Adeoye said Oba Akanbi’s character did not befit a person of his status and calibre, as he allegedly used to carry about armed thugs, miscreants and hoodlums to harass, intimidate, molest and attack persons whom he perceived as his enemies.

Oba Adeoye further alleged that Oba Akanbi forged his name to obtain travel documents to the United States where he was jailed in New York City and was deported to Nigeria in 2000.

The affidavit also stated that Oba Akanbi later traveled out with his real name to Canada in 2001 and became a Canadian citizen, but was also arrested in Toronto and was in jail between 2006 and 2007.

Oba Adeoye added that Oba Akanbi was making money through Internet fraud or ‘Yahoo-Yahoo,’ as it is called in local parlance, using his palace as a cover-up.

But Oba Akanbi, in reaction to the allegations in a 13-paragraph affidavit, described the application filed against him as “scandalous, vexatious and designed to embarrass, blackmail and ridicule” him in the eye of right thinking members of the society, vowing to take up the case to a higher court in the land.