An Ado-Ekiti Chief Magistrate Court has discharged and acquitted Ibitola Babatope, former president of the Students’ Union Government, Ekiti State University, EKSU, and Boluwaji Isola, President of Moba Student Union, in a case of alleged unlawful assembly and cultism ahead of the Ekiti State APC Primary election.
Babatope and Isola were arrested at a hotel in Ikun-Ekiti on the eve of the APC primary election during a raid in which nine other people suspected to be armed were also arrested.
In his ruling delivered on May 26, Chief Magistrate Abayomi Adeosun, said the duo were exonerated following legal advice from the Ekiti State Ministry of Justice.
According to the Enrolment of Order, the Director of Public Prosecutions, Olaniyi Olakunle Akinlabi, Esq., reviewed the case file and advised that there was no sufficient evidence to link the 3rd and 7th defendants to the commission of the crime.
It reads: “The names of the 3rd and 7th defendants are hereby struck out and they are hereby discharged. The properties of the 3rd and 7th defendants and their phones and power banks in custody of the police are ordered to be released to them.”
The DPP’s advice noted that while a prima facie case of Unlawful Assembly and Unlawful Possession of Offensive Weapons was established against nine other defendants, Ishola, listed as the 3rd defendant, and Babatope, listed as the 7th defendant, should be “let off the hook” due to lack of evidence.
The nine remaining defendants Adekunle Stephen, Adepoju Adebayo, Oluwatobi Adeoluwa, Akintunde Emmanuel, Adewale Makanjuola, Abanikanda Sikiru, Dayo Ibijowo, Ajayi Dele, and Adegbite Damola are to be charged before the High Court for Unlawful Assembly and Unlawful Possession of Offensive Weapons, contrary to Sections 57 and 47 of the Criminal Law of Ekiti State, 2021.
Speaking with journalists, the student leaders said they were in the community to offer media services to one of the House of Representatives contestants before they were arrested by police.
They thanked the court for the due diligence and thorough investigation of the matter.