Update On Olaitan Oyerinde's Murder - Court To Rule On Rev David Ugolor’s Rights

Update On Olaitan's Murder - Court To Rule On Rev David Ugolor’s Rights - Justice Esther Edigin of Benin High Court on Thursday reserved judgment till September 6, 2012, in the application brought by the detained environmental rights activist, Rev. David Ugolor for the enforcement of his fundamental rights.

Counsel to Rev. Ugolor, Afolabi Olayiwola had filed an action in the court following the refusal by the police to release Ugolor from detention despite an order from the court that he should be released on bail pending the determination of the substantive suit.

Ugolor has been in police detention since 27 July, 2012, in connection with the murder of Olaitan Oyerinde, Principal Private Secretary to the Edo State Governor.
Justice Edigin on 16 August granted bail to the detained activist following a Motion Exparte filed by his counsel, Mr. Afolabi Olayiwola and directed the Inspector General of Police to release him.

The police through their Counsel, David Abuo, on Thursday in a counter affidavit told the court that the First Respondent, the Inspector General of Police has not been served with any process(es) of the court apart from an enrolment of order dated 17th August 2012 and dropped at the Legal Section of the Force CID, Abuja.

Mr. Abuo also argued that the police has not concluded investigations into, “this matter because we have to travel up to Kano, Adamawa and several other places the investigation of this matter is leading us to. That we are still gathering information from the various Service Providers regarding the call logs of Applicant and others connected with this matter.”

He therefore prayed the court for a short adjournment to enable the respondents look into the various court processes.
Opposing the motion, Counsel to the Applicant, Afolabi Olayiwola who prayed the court to dismiss the application and the prayer by the respondents for a short adjournment, described the prayer as incompetent, saying that it was filed outside the period allowed by rules of the court without any extension.
He contended that the Counter affidavit was supposed to have been filed within five days, having been served with the relevant court processes on August 9, 2012, by virtue of the Fundamental Rights Enforcement Procedure Rules.

Justice Edigin after listening to submissions of both Counsel, fixed September 6, 2012, for judgment on the matter.
It would be recalled that the police authorities and the Directorate of State Security Services (SSS) had presented conflicting reports on the arrest of the alleged killers of Olaitan.