Eight anti-riot policemen assaulted him on the premises of the court. The victim is receiving treatment at the Ijaiye General Hospital as a result of the beating.
The battle-ready policemen were on duty at the venue of the state Election Petitions Tribunal, which was expected to take the written submission of the counsel to the litigants in the April 14, 2007 governorship election in the state.
The Action Congress governorship candidate, Otunba Dipo Dina, is challenging the election of the incumbent governor, Otunba Gbenga Daniel, of the Peoples Democratic Party, who is running his second term in office.
The policemen were said to be manning the Armoured Personnel Carrier at the gate of the court when the registrar drove into the premises.
Trouble was said to have started when Oduwaye was ordered out of his office over allegation that he did not stop for the search being conducted by the policemen at the gate of the state Magistrate’s Court, which serves as the venue of the sitting of the Election Petitions Tribunal. The victim, who was rushed to the state General Hospital, Ijaiye, shortly after being manhandled by the policemen, told our reporter amidst expression of pain that he was duly passed at the gate before he drove into the premises in his green Datsun car.
The Court Registrar said, “While I was opening the door to my office, one of the policemen shouted at me saying, ‘Hey you, come back here.’ I thought it was a joke and I entered my office. A minute later, about three of them stormed my office and started pushing me around, charging at me why I did not obey their order. “Despite the pleas of my colleagues, the policemen, eight in number, started beating me with their belts and the butts of their guns. My head and body are paining me now.”
The doctor who attended to Oduwaye at the Ijaiye General Hospital, diagnosed “physical assault, well hydrated and little distress.”
The Public Relations Officer, Ogun State Police Command, Mr. Femi Awoyale, however, blamed Oduwaye for refusing to be searched at the gate of the court.
“The man drove there in a taxi. Under the circumstance, the policemen will have to ensure the identity of the occupants before granting entry. But the man did not wait to be searched at the gate; he forced his way in. So, the policemen challenged him,” he said.
Awoyale, a Deputy Superintendent of Police, did not deny that the man was assaulted, and he did not explain the rational behind the deflation of the tyre of the car that brought the man after he was beaten.
Meanwhile, the Election Petitions Tribunal in the state has shifted the adoption of the written submissions of the counsel to Daniel, Dina and the Independent National Electoral Commission to Tuesday, April 1, 2008.