….Says Aides’ voices secretly recorded
The dust raised by the murder of former Ekiti State Chairman of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) Omolafe Aderiye has refused to settle as another twist has been added to the alleged ‘tutoring’ of a witness’ statement to implicate eight persons accused of complicity....
The late Aderiye’s Personal Assistant, Gbolahan Okeowo, who is a star witness in the murder trial has revealed that he secretly recorded the voices of the two aides of Governor Ayo Fayose whom he accused of ‘tutoring’ him to write another statement which indicted he accused.
Those standing trial for ex-NURTW boss murder are Bayo Aderiye aka Ojugo, Niyi Adedipe aka Apase, Sola Durodola, Oso Farotimi, Ajayi Kayode, Sola Adenijo aka Solar and Rotimi Olanbiwonnu aka Mentilo.
Also implicated in the murder was a security aide to former Governor Kayode Fayemi, Deji Adesokan aka Jarule who was declared wanted over the killing of Omolafe.
The two governor’s aides in question are the Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Owoseni Ajayi and the Special Assistant on Public Communication and New Media, Lere Olayinka.
Both Ajayi and Olayinka had denied link with Okeowo in a chat with a weekend paper where Olayinka claimed that he had never met Okeowo. Ajayi on his part, accused Okeowo of committing perjury by recanting his evidence before an Ado Ekiti High Court.
Speaking in an exclusive chat with The Nation on Thursday in Ado Ekiti, Okeowo urged the National Security Adviser, the Inspector General of Police and the Director General of the Department of State Services (DSS), to investigate the call logs of Ajayi and Olayinka to unearth the conversations they had with him in connection with the murder case.
Okeowo reiterated his position in an affidavit of facts he deposed to at the Federal High Court, Akure that all the seven persons standing trial and Adesokan who had been declared wanted knew nothing about the murder as the second statement he wrote at Ajayi’s office was used to frame them up.
The late NURTW chair’s aide disclosed that he was shocked to read the claims of both Ajayi and Olayinka in the said newspaper that they had nothing to do with him revealing that all his encounters with the duo were secretly recorded declaring his readiness to tender the recording at the appropriate time.
He explained that the two government officials told him that the first statement he volunteered at the state police headquarters “was too weak” to nail the murder suspects hence the need to write another one to indict them.
Okeowo claimed that Ajayi, who was Special Adviser on Legal Matters and had not been confirmed as Attorney General at the time he wrote the second statement, called on the DPP to bring the case file
According to him, the son of the deceased, Yinka Aderiye, younger brother of the deceased, Wale Ibidapo, the Permanent Secretary, Director of Public Prosecution were there on the day he was allegedly coerce to write another incriminating statement against the suspects.
Okeowo revealed that the initial plan was to being Yinka (son of the deceased) to court to testify against the accused persons even when he (Yinka) was not present at his father’s office where he (Omolafe) was murdered.
He revealed that somebody called the late Omolafe 15 minutes before he was murdered saying “my late boss was enthusiastic that a big man called him, the question now is, who is that big man? The phone with which he received the call was taken away by the killers.
Okeowo explained: “At this juncture I will implore the National Security Adviser, the Inspector General of Police and the Director General of DSS to investigate the call logs of Owoseni Ajayi. I am ready to surrender myself for full investigation to unravel the mysterious death of my late boss.
“These people saying they don’t know me, how come they have been calling me since? I received a call from (Lere) Olayinka on October 27 and Owoseni has been calling me through Yinka Aderiye, the son of my late boss. Let the NSA, IG and DG of DSS invite all of us.
“I want the IG to investigate the MTN call logs of Owoseni Ajayi and this will assist the whole world to know the truth. I want Owoseni Ajayi, Lere Olayinka and Yinka Aderiye who is now Owoseni’s personal assistant to be summoned to Abuja to explain all they know about this matter.
“They promised me a local government appointment on behalf of the governor if I could go ahead to indict all the seven persons on trial and Jarule on the murder of my boss but these people are innocent.
“It is ungodly and wicked for me to say what I have not seen after I had listened to a sermon of my pastor and I have gone to court to swear and depose to an affidavit because God is looking at all of us.
“Police knew nothing about what happened at Owoseni Ajayi’s office, they had submitted their file with the DPP but it was Owoseni Ajayo who ordered the DPP to bring the file and that was where we wrote another statement indicting the innocent souls.
“They told me that the statement we made at the police headquarters was not enough and that it was weak too weak to nail those people indicted.
“Ajayi said all what his boss wanted to hear was that Jarule came down the vehicle waiting in company with Apase that Jarule opened fire on my late boss and that there was a particular Hilux van at the opposite side of our office then.
“That inside the vehicle were (Bayo) Aderiye, Mentilo, Durodola, Farotimi, Adenijo, (Kayode) Ajayi. All these are fabricated lies, there was nothing like that on that day. I was with my boss on that day and there was nothing like that.
“I never saw anybody called Jarule on that day, I never saw Adedipe on that day. The statement I wrote at Owoseni Ajayi’s office was done under threat. That was the way I was tutored and coerced that day in his office but he never knew that he was recorded. I have my facts and figures and I will release them at the appropriate time”.
“I wonder why innocent souls will be languishing in remand and being punished for an offence they knew nothing about. The essence ongoing to the Federal High Court Akure to depose to an affidavit of facts is that these innocent souls must not be punished for an offence they knew nothing about”.
No comments:
Post a Comment
WE LOVE COMMENTS, POST A COMMENT