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On February 3, 2023, Olasunkanmi Adejare, a Lagos-based litigation officer, found himself at the mercy of a ruthless gang.
What started as an unassuming visit to his late father’s property turned into a nightmarish ordeal, one that would leave him battered, bloodied, and barely clinging to life.
Months before this attack, precisely on August 7, 2022, his father, Pa Jimoh, died, leaving behind a house located in the Idiya community, Rounder, Abeokuta.
Until Pa Jimoh’s demise, he had inherited the property, which consists of two bungalows and a one-storey building, from his elder sister, who passed away in 2014.
The deceased reportedly managed the property without any confrontation from anyone.
However, everything changed after the completion of his late father’s eight-day funeral rites when Adejare received a phone call from one of the tenants residing in the house.
“I was told that some people came to chase out all the tenants in the building. When I asked him who those people were, he told me that they didn’t know them, but they claimed to be my family members.
“We all grew up in Lagos; it was after my dad died that I started visiting the property in Abeokuta. I came down to the house to check and then returned to Lagos.
“That same August, on the 19th, the tenants called me again, saying some people had forcefully broken the padlock to the one-storey building and carted away items like aluminium windows, roofing sheets, and wood, all valued at about N5m,” he told Saturday PUNCH.
‘They wanted to kill me’
Upon receiving the alarming report, the 48-year-old travelled to Abeokuta and reported the case at Sabo Police Station.
Based on eyewitness accounts, about five suspects were arrested in the area.
The suspects allegedly admitted to the police that they were family members and had a right to the property, a claim disputed by Adejare, who insisted he never knew them.
According to him, the suspects were charged with theft, but while the case was still going on, a sinister plan was allegedly hatched against him in the Idiya community.
On the fateful day, Adejare had travelled from Lagos to Abeokuta, arriving at about 5 pm to spend the night at the house.
“While I was inside, I started hearing someone calling my father’s surname. When I stepped out, I saw it was a landlord in the area. He told me some people claimed I had stolen or sold a truckload of sand that had been offloaded on our property.
“I told him I knew nothing about it. Suddenly, he started throwing stones at me, so I quickly ran back inside. The landlord’s son mobilised some thugs. They broke the door, came for me upstairs, and viciously attacked me with a shovel, sticks, and bottles.
“They smashed bottles on my head and dragged me down from the one-storey building. There were nine of them in total, but I could only recognise the three I mentioned earlier. For nearly two hours, they descended on me, trying to kill me. I could hear residents shouting outside, ‘Don’t kill him!’ Then I lost consciousness,” he recounted.
When he regained consciousness, Adejare managed to escape through the back door, wearing only his boxer shorts, desperately searching for someone to take him to a hospital.
“People were running away from me that evening because I was drenched in blood. I managed to reach the main road, around Ayetoro, to stop commercial motorcyclists. Only one of them stopped to take me to the Ilupeju Police Station, Sabo,” he added.
Legal hurdle
After Adejare was treated, through a combined effort of residents, the police, and the Ogun State Government-backed security outfit, So-Safe Corps, the three main suspects were apprehended and charged.
Describing the losses he incurred during the attack, Adejare claimed his house was looted by the thugs, and two of his phones were damaged.
“They stole N225,000 and also took one iPhone 11 Pro Max, which I was supposed to take to Abuja for someone. It was still new, with the receipt. The photos of me after the attack were taken by my Investigating Police Officer and kept as an exhibit.
“As I prepared to go to court, I started receiving calls from people in the community who pleaded with me to forgive them and settle the matter. I gave them conditions for an out-of-court settlement, which included replacing all the items stolen from me, both in cash and kind. But by March, when I realised they weren’t eager to meet these conditions and had stopped taking their calls, I decided to proceed with the case.
“When I saw how the now-retired DPO was handling the case, I wrote a petition to the former Ogun State Commissioner of Police, now DIG Frank Mba, requesting that the case be transferred from Sabo Police Station in Abeokuta to the State CID in Eleweran. The matter was then assigned to Inspector Ramon Hakeem,” Adejare told our correspondent.
The court case was discharged in December 2024, with the defendants acquitted and all charges against them dropped.
A certified true copy of the court judgment forwarded to Saturday PUNCH showed that the complainant, the Commissioner of Police, and three defendants were first arraigned before the Chief Magistrate Court of Ogun State, Abeokuta District, on March 7, 2023.
According to the court document with charge number MA/153C/2023, the defendants were arraigned on counts of conspiracy to commit assault occasioning harm, unlawful damage, unlawful assault, and stealing.
The judgment, delivered by Chief Magistrate II, Her Worship (Mrs) A. K. Araba, on December 20, 2024, read:
“From the facts as retailed by the prosecution witnesses, I see no reliance between the first, second, and third defendants to have conspired to commit assault occasioning harm or to have stolen the money of PW2.
“The first, second, and third defendants are not guilty of the offence in count 1 of the charge. I have carefully and painstakingly considered the facts of this case. The prosecution was unable to cogently and unequivocally establish the ingredients of the offences in counts 1, 2, 3, and 4 of the charge.
“The court consequently finds and holds that the prosecution has failed to prove the facts of this case beyond reasonable doubt against the defendants. The defendants are therefore not found guilty of the offences in counts 1, 2, 3, and 4 of the charge. They are hereby discharged and acquitted.”
Alleged sabotage
In his interview with Saturday PUNCH, Adejare insisted that his case was deliberately sabotaged by his prosecution officer, one ASP Famuyiwa, whom he accused of refusing to subpoena the medical doctor who treated him.
“When the case started, my IPO had about six photos of me after the attack, including pictures of the shovel and broken bottles used to attack me at the crime scene, as well as the truckload of sand they claimed was the cause of the dispute. That claim was untrue—the real issue was the property.”
“When we got to court, the initial prosecutor, Evelyn Utim, told me to get the medical report from General Hospital, Ijaye, Abeokuta, so that she could subpoena the medical doctor and build a strong case. I obtained the report. But the case was transferred from Old Court Five to Six.
“Then, I began to notice an unholy relationship between the lawyer of the defendants and the new prosecutor, ASP Famuyiwa. When the case resumed, my two damaged phones were not tendered in court, and the doctor who treated me was not subpoenaed.
“When I raised concerns about the prosecutor, the Chief Magistrate II ordered that I be detained for two hours. Famuyiwa deliberately sabotaged my case,” he explained.
A copy of the medical report, signed by IPO Edwen Peter and obtained by Adejare from General Hospital, Ijaye, was forwarded to our correspondent.
In the medical report, dated March 2023, which Adejare accused his prosecutor of removing from the file, the doctor recorded:
“On examination, he had a 2cm laceration on his right cheek with multiple abrasions on his left shoulder and right scapula.”
“An assessment of multiple injuries following assault was made. His injuries were dressed, and he was told to continue the medications he was already on.”
In a petition filed to the Assistant Inspector General of Police, Zone 2 Command, Onikan, Lagos, dated January 2, 2025, a copy of which was forwarded to our correspondent, Adejare accused Famuyiwa of “deliberately sabotaging a criminal case he prosecuted” on his behalf and “forming an unholy relationship with the defendants and their lawyer.”
In the letter, which was also sent to the SCID, Eleweran, Adejare urged that Famuyiwa “be investigated and possibly sanctioned.”
Police respond
When our correspondent reached out to the Police Public Relations Officer of the Zone 2 Command Headquarters, Lagos, Ayuba Umma, for comments, she requested that Adejare visit her so she could attend to his complaints.
When contacted, the Ogun State PPRO, Omolola Odutola, said, “The court has discharged this case. I have nothing to say about a case that has been discharged in court. Let the complainant report to my office.”
