“Too Late To Restart”: Court Denies Oloko Of Oko’s Request To Move Trial From Ibadan, Cites Dead Witnesses

Justice K.A. Adedokun of the Oyo State High Court in Ibadan confirmed that the Chief Judge refused the request to restart the trial in Ogbomoso, especially after the prosecution had already closed its case.

The judge explained that he could not deliver the scheduled ruling on the defendants’ no-case submission because the new defence counsel had written to the Chief Judge, requesting that he stop adjudicating on the matter.

The case was initially handled by M.O. Folorunsho, who withdrew after being appointed as a judge in Kwara State. The new defence counsel wanted the trial to start afresh in Ogbomoso, where most of the previous proceedings had taken place.

However, the Chief Judge insisted that Justice Adedokun continued with the trial, emphasising that restarting the case would be unfair and a waste of the prosecution’s efforts, especially since some witnesses had passed away.

“I received the directive to continue with the case just yesterday,” Justice Adedokun stated, before setting March 19 as the new date to rule on the no-case submission filed by the defence counsel.

The monarch and his co-defendants, including Chief Sunday Aderinto, Chief Jimoh Asimiyu, Timothy Aderinto, Matthew Akintaro, Rafiu Ganiu, and Adejare Adeleru, have all pleaded not guilty to the 29-count charge. The charges include attempted murder, assault, robbery, stealing and land grabbing.