Counsel to a prospective co-claimant on suit challenging authenticity of Secondary School Certificate of Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq of Kwara State, Olawale Babalola, has alleged that police in the state were intimidating him over the matter.
Babaloba alongside his client, Olaseinde Olusola, were before Justice Nike Akinpelu hearing the suit at the Ilorin High Court last Monday, where they prayed to be joined.
The counsel to the defendant, Jimoh Lawal, had drawn the attention of the court to a notice of withdrawal reportedly filed by the claimant, Olufemi Abraham, which the court said it was not aware.
However, the court adjourned till June 26 after holding that the case has not been discontinued by the claimant, Olufemi Abraham, while ruling that the defendant was still within the time to respond to the notice of application of joinder by the prospective co-claimant.
The counsel to the prospective co-claimant alleged that immediately after the court proceeding last Monday and while still within the court premises, he was accosted by three policemen in mufti, who arrested and took him to the Special Investigation Bureau (SIB) at the state Police Headquarters.
When contacted, the state police public relations officer (PPRO), Ajayi Okasanmi, said he was not aware of the matter but urged the lawyer to forward his complaint to the state Commissioner of Police.
Speaking to Journalists in Ilorin on Friday, Babalola, together with his client, said that the detectives told him there was a petition against him that he forged the receipt of filing fees of the processes of his client filed in the court.
He said he refuted the claim by explaining that he was not the one who filed the processes but his client, adding that he only prepared the documents and gave them to the client to file.
The lawyer said despite his explanation and efforts to be released on bail, he was made to pass the night in cell. Babalola said though through the intervention of some of his colleague-lawyers he was granted bail the following day, the police still asked him to be reporting to the Bureau.
Also speaking, the client confirmed that he filed the processes and paid for the filing fees and that the lawyer only prepared the papers and gave him to file. Olaseinde wondered why his counsel would be suffering the alleged intimidation from the police, saying that since he, and not his counsel, was the one who came up with the application in the court, he was supposed to be taken up on issues connecting with the matter.
Olaseinde said he has investigated the credentials the governor submitted to the INEC and found out that the secondary school certificate and testimonial submitted were allegedly not authentic.
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