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| Mrs Osijo |
A traffic dispute between a mother
of three, Mrs. Yetunde Osijo, and a magistrate, Funke Sule-Hamzat, which
occurred in Oworonsoki area of Lagos, led to Osijo’s arraignment and subsequent
detention in Kirikiri prison.
There were different accounts of the
traffic disagreement which occurred between the driver of the Magistrate and
Osijo in Oworonsoki before she was pursued to Surulere by the magistrate, who
subsequently ordered her arrest by the police.
According to Osijo’s husband, Dipo,
Sule-Hamzat’s driver, who is a magistrate at the Ogudu Magistrate Court,
allegedly bumped into Osijo’s car, but the furious magistrate ordered that
Osijo be arrested and taken to her court, where she promptly ordered that Osijo
be remanded in Kirikiri Prison without giving her the opportunity to get a
lawyer.
Dipo said: “From information I
gathered from eyewitnesses, it was the magistrate’s driver that was wrong at
the time of the minor accident.
“Yetunde, who bumped into the magistrate’s car
assumed she would be asked to leave only to realise that Sule-Hamzat’s car was
chasing her from behind.” Dipo said that his wife started driving in January,
and that it was just a traffic offence that resulted in a minor scratch.
He said that the magistrate and her
driver chased his wife and when they caught up with her, she was arraigned and
sent to prison on Monday at about 5:30p.m
However, another account by the
Chief Registrar of Lagos State High Court, Mr. Emmanuel Ogundare, said the
entire story as told by Mr Osijo was far from the truth.
He said: “How can a magistrate in
Lagos, involved in an accident, order the arrest of the other party and arraign
her in own court? “This is a judicial
officer, who knows the implication of such actions.
It was unfortunate that contrary to
the report, the case was brought before Magistrate A. Elias, who sits in Ogba
Chief Magistrate’s Court, that has the jurisdiction to handle the case from the
area the accident happened. “Can we say because she is a judicial officer, she
is not entitled to complain to the police or be heard when her rights is
trampled upon?
“The lady in question was arrested
in Surulere, from Ogba where the incident occurred and taken to the police
station, where her statement was taken.
“She was subsequently arraigned and granted
bail in the sum of N100,000 with one surety in like sum, which is the least bail
condition for such offence.”
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