Six workers of Osun State University (UNIOSUN) have been discharged and acquitted by an Osogbo Magistrates’ Court over alleged staging a peaceful protest against the university.
The six defendants are Adiat Kadir, Odeniyi Olakunle, Adewuyi Saheed, Abiodun Olalekan, Ajulo Adetunji and Kayode Adesoye.
The Nation recalls that some union leaders and members of the institution in 2018 protested alleged unpaid entitlements and financial impropriety against the university’s Vice Chancellor, Prof. Labo Popoola.
The defendants had, through their counsel, Amole Joseph, entered a ‘no case submission’ after the prosecutor, Moses Faremi of the Ministry of Justice had established his case.
Magistrate Opeyemi Badmus, delivering his ruling on the no-case submission on August 14, declared that the prosecution failed to establish a prima facie case against 19 of the 25 workers.
Badmus said the 19 workers had no case to answer and therefore freed them.
Badmus had said that six other union members, whose vehicles were allegedly used to block the road during the peaceful protest, should enter their defence since the prosecutor had established a prima facie case against them.
On October 7, 2018, when the case was called for the defendants’ counsel to open its case, the complainant (Osun State University) and the prosecution counsel were absent in court.
The defence counsel told the court that the complainant had shunned the court for two consecutive times and also said that the absence of the prosecution counsel at the sitting was a ploy to delay the process.
Joseph prayed the court to dismiss their case for lack of diligence prosecution.
Magistrate Badmus dismissed the case, discharged and acquitted the defendants.
The Nation