A legal practitioner, Yusuf Adeshina and a bailiff were allegedly assaulted on Friday by the Speaker of Osun State House of Assembly, Wale Egbedun while executing court order in Osogbo, capital of Osun State.
It was gathered that the incident occurred around 9:30 am on Friday when the lawyer and the official of the court were executing an order to eject some people from a portion of land around Technical area via NUJ Press Centre.
It was learnt that one of those that were affected by the court order called the Speaker who showed up at the scene and prevented them from enforcing the order. During the argument the lawyer allegedly poked his finger at the Speaker which angered him, hence, he directed his aide to beat him up.
Contacted, Adeshina recounted that, he went to execute order of the court alongside a bailiff when the Speaker was called upon by some of the people affected people.
“Few minutes later, the Speaker arrived the scene with his convoy, he was opposed to our action. He told the policemen that I went with including the bailiff to vacate the place. He told the policemen and the civil defence corps at the scene that he had called one Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP).
“I approached him, I introduced myself that I am the lawyer, and I told him that he is being misguided by those people at the place. He shouted that we should leave the place because those people were hailing him, I cautioned him that his action was not well guided and gesticulated by pointing my fingers at him. He said I was mad for pointing a finger at him, and before I knew it, his aides including his security details started beating me and he supervised the assault on myself and the court bailiff. I was taken into one of the cars in his convoy. They drove me to government house to drop me off. It is unfortunate, I am even one of his counsels during his election petition.”
Meanwhile, the Nigeria Bar Association(NBA), Osogbo chapter, has condemned the Speaker’s action.
The chairman of the chapter, Yemi Abiona said: “We condemn the action of the Speaker, it is impunity. For a lawyer and a bailiff who are executing court order to be assaulted and harassed by the head of an arm of government, is an assault on the judiciary, we are going to do everything possible to make sure that the right of our members and integrity of the court is maintained, we cannot be folding our arms and watch this recklessness and abuse of power.”
Contacted, Egbedun’s spokesperson, Tiamiyu Olamide explained that, “the speaker never assaulted anyone at the scene. The speaker was called this morning by some residents that some people were at their place to forcibly eject them from the land, he drove down to the scene when he got there, he was discussing with the leader of police officers at the operation.
“The Speaker called a senior officer who was not at the scene and handed the phone to the officer on duty at the scene, after that, they withdrew from the scene. After that, some of the occupants were trying to mob a guy and our chief detail took the man inside our car. They left with him to protect him and dropped him around the State Government House to find his way. It is a blatant lie.”