Wonders shall never end! Lagos State Directorate of Public
Prosecutions said 49-year-old Samson Adeneye and a woman, Oyerinde
Olawunmi, 48, have a case to answer in a matter in which a human skull
was found in the ceiling of an orthodox church in Lagos.
Two
policemen attached to Special Anti-robbery Squad – ASP Franklin Alade
and Cpl Deleojo Odunayo – were also implicated in the matter, for abuse
of office.
A human skull was found in the ceiling of the St.
Peter Cherubim and Seraphim church on Moses Adebisi Street, in the Ketu
area of Lagos.
Prior to the incident, Adeneye and Olawunmi, who were
former members of the church, were said to have sent threat text
messages to some of the church’s ministers.
The two suspects were said to have accused the pastors of occultism and threatened to deal with them and kill them.
Both
suspects had alerted the two SARS officers that there was a case of
gun-running in the assembly. And the policemen reportedly stormed the
assembly without any search warrant and headed for the ceiling where
they allegedly found the item.
Further investigations by the
police revealed that the two ex-embers might have arranged the object to
implicate the pastors, as suggested by earlier text messages sent to
them.
They were subsequently arrested and charged to Court. The matter was earlier adjourned for DPP’s advice.
The DPP, in its advice signed by the Deputy Director, Adegboyega Bajulaiye, said:
“
After
carefully considering the facts available in the duplicate case file,
this office is of the view that there are sufficient facts to establish a
prima facie case of conspiracy to commit felony to wit; offering
violence to officiating ministers of religion, written threat to kill
and publication of false news which is likely to cause fear and alarm to
the public...“Facts available in the duplicate case file
reveal that prior to January 19, 2013, there was a malice that brewed
up over the years between Apostle Albert Samson and Samson Adeneye,
which culminated into unauthorised search on the premises of Albert by
men of SARS, led by ASP Franklin Alade, on the trumped-up allegation of
gunrunning. This act of the police officers, which was believed to have
been instigated by Adeneye, amount to abuse of office….”The
advice further stated that the two defendants had been sending death
threat messages to the ministers, that were meant to distract them from
their duties as ministers.
On the matter of the skull, the advice said,
“There is however a strong inference from the facts in the case file
that Adeneye may have been instrumental to placing ritual objects,
including human skulls, on the ceiling of Albert’s church because of his
prior accusation of Albert being a ritualist. This will only amount to
speculation and suspicion, which no matter how grave, cannot stand in
the place of law, particularly in the absence of eyewitness account or
unequivocal evidence of inference.”The DPP said based on
findings, Adeneye and Olawunmi, should be arraigned for conspiracy to
commit felony, written threat to kill and publication of false
information.
The magistrate, Mrs. A.O Adedayo, will give her position/ruling on the matter on July 1, 2014.