A lawyer identified as Yusuf Adeshina has narrated how he was beaten and assaulted by security operatives attached to Rt. Hon. Adewale Egbedun, Speaker of the Osun State House of Assembly, for pointing fingers at their principal.
Adeshina, who claimed that the 39-year-old Speaker supervised the assault, disclosed that the incident happened while executing a court order for occupants of a land to vacate the premises at the Technical Area, opposite Landero Filling Station.
According to Adeshina, the occupants were already packing their loads before the Speaker arrived at the scene and declared that he had spoken with the Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), who instructed them to vacate the premises.
The lawyer also claimed that the Speaker shouted at him and the court bailiff because people were hailing him.
Adeshina, who acknowledged that the Speaker later gave him rapt attention despite the hailing he received from some occupants who had invited him to the scene, disclosed that he approached the Speaker and introduced himself as a lawyer present to monitor the execution and protect the interests of his client.
I told him that he had been misinformed, and I narrated the actual account of the event and insisted that we were there to execute a court order. The Speaker told us that we could not just send people away like that and directed that we should vacate the premises, Adeshina narrated.
The lawyer also disclosed that he pointed his finger in gesticulation to the Speaker, saying that he was misinformed by those who had invited him to the scene, and the Speaker reacted by saying, ‘he is mad for pointing fingers at him’.
“After the Speaker called me a mad fellow, his aides descended on me with heavy blows and slaps. He cheerfully watched and supervised the assault. He did not ask them to stop. I was later arrested by one of his aides, who put me inside one of the cars belonging to the Speaker. He drove me away from the scene, and the officer who was in the car with me said he had to drive me away to save my life from others. I was dropped off at Government House, Oke-Fia, Osogbo,” Adesina further narrated.
The lawyer claimed that he has been to the hospital for better treatment owing to pains caused by the assault to his body, particularly the eyes.
The Osogbo Branch of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) has condemned the incident.
The chairman of the NBA, Osogbo branch, Barrister Yemi Abiona, while reacting to the incident, described the action of the Speaker against the legal practitioner as an insult and an assault on the judiciary.
“We condemn the action of the Speaker; it is impunity. For a lawyer and a bailiff who are executing court orders to be assaulted and harassed by the head of an arm of government. We are going to do everything possible to make sure that our rights, those of our members, and the integrity of the court are maintained. We can’t be folding our arms and watching this recklessness and abuse of power”, he stated.
Efforts to reach out to Tiamiyu Olamide, the Chief Press Secretary to Speaker of the Osun State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Adewale Egbedun, were futile as his number was not reachable at the time of filing this report.
