The impeached Chairman of the Ijebu-East Local Government, Wale Adedayo, has been charged in connection with a letter written to Aremo Olusegun Osoba that was critical of Governor Dapo Abiodun by the Ogun State Commissioner of Police, Abiodun Alamutu.
Adedayo accused Abiodun of misusing monies intended for the state’s local governments in a letter to the late governor Osoba.
Adedayo was ultimately impeached by the council members in Ijebu-East despite the fact that Governor Abiodun fiercely disputed the accusations and received apology letters from other council chairmen.
He was apprehended by the police on Monday, and they held him there until Tuesday morning, when they brought him before an Abeokuta-based Ogun State Magistrate’s Court.
According to information obtained by OBASANJO NEWS24, the arrest was made as a result of a petition that the Ogun State Government sent to the police command, alleging that Adedayo had purposefully spread false information about Gov. Abiodun in his letter.
On Tuesday, Inspector Olaide Rawlings, the prosecution, informed the magistrate that in his letter to Osoba, Adedayo had defamed Abiodun.
The two-count charge read, “That you Hon. Wale Adedayo’m’ on the 27th August 2023 at Abeokuta in the Abeokuta Magisterial District did unlawfully publish a circular to the public, a letter addressed to the former Governor of Ogun State and Elder Statesman, Aremo Olusegun Osoba’m’ in which you accused the current Governor of Ogun State, Prince Dapo Abiodun’m, of
The letter accusing Abiodun of misappropriating Local Government monies, 10% of the State’s Internally Generated Revenue, was allegedly unlawfully released by Adedayo as of May 2019. The Constitution mandates that the Local Government(s) receive these funds beginning in May 2019.
The letter was allegedly a false accusation that would harm the governor’s reputation by subjecting him to animosity, scorn, or ridicule or interfere with his ability to perform the duties of his position.
The prosecutor claimed that the offence violated Section 375 of the Ogun State Criminal Code of 2006 and was penalised by that provision.
In response to the accusations made against him, Adedayo had entered a not guilty plea.
According to the defence attorney for the defendant, Kayode Akinsola, the allegations against him are bailable and he should be released on bail.
The application for bail was unopposed by the prosecutor.
Adedayo was given a N2 million bail bond and two “responsible and reliable sureties” in equal amounts, according to Magistrate A.K. Araba’s decision.
The sureties, according to Araba, must be residents of the court’s geographic jurisdiction and owners of tax-cleared landed property.
In order to allow the bail requirements to be fulfilled, the magistrate mandated that the defendant be held at the Ibara Correctional Centre in Abeokuta.
Currently set for trial on October 20, 2023, the case has been postponed.
