An Osun State High court sitting in Osogbo on Tuesday rejected six suspects brought to court by the State Police Command for arraignment in connection with the inter-tribal violence that occurred in Ile-Ife on March 8, this year, in which scores of people were killed and property destroyed.
The suspects, including a traditional ruler in Ife town, the Lawarikan of Apojeland, Oba Ademola Ademiluyi, were brought to court by the police under tight security, but were later whisked back to the police headquarters in Osogbo, barely 30 minutes after their arrival.
They were supposed to be arraigned before Justice Kudirat Akano at High Court 5, Osogbo, but the process was stalled because the permission of the court was not sought before the suspects were brought by the police.
Armed Security men had subjected relatives and friends of the suspects, who thronged the court to witness the proceedings, to scrutiny before they were allowed to sit in the courtroom.
But after waiting for about twenty minutes, the police ordered the suspects back into a white Hiace bus, which in they were conveyed to the court and driven taken back to the police headquarters.
A police source confided in our correspondent that the suspect’s arraignment was stalled because the consent of the court had not been obtained before they were brought into the courtroom.
The source, however, disclosed that the suspects would be arraigned tomorrow (Wednesday).
The six suspects were moved to Osogbo from the Police Headquarters in Abuja after their arrest last month.
Recall that the bloody clash between Ife indigenes and Hausa settlers in the town necessitated the constitution of a commission of inquiry to investigate the mayhem.
