Posted by By GABRIEL DIKE, Osogbo on
The last seems not to have been heard on the bomb explosion that rocked the Osun State Secretariat, Abere in June 2007 as the prime suspect in the incident, Mr. Richard Abayomi declared that he was ready to confront his sponsors in an open forum to tell the world what happened and those behind the blast.
The last seems not to have been heard on the bomb explosion that rocked the Osun State Secretariat, Abere in June 2007 as the prime suspect in the incident, Mr. Richard Abayomi declared that he was ready to confront his sponsors in an open forum to tell the world what happened and those behind the blast.
Abayomi, an indigene of Ondo State was arrested by the police, following his alleged involvement in the explosion and has since been detained in the police custody while the case is before an Osogbo Magistrate Court.
The suspect had in an affidavit sworn to before an Osun State High Court sitting in Osogbo, pointed accusing fingers at some leaders of the Action Congress (AC) including the gubernatorial candidate of the party in the April 14,2007 election in the state, Engr. Rauf Aregbesola and a former Governor of Lagos State, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu.
The case which is currently pending before an Osogbo Magistrate Court has generated tension in the state while the ruling party and opposition political parties have continued to trade words over the incident, even as the police had invited Aregbesola and other leading members of the AC for interrogation based on a new affidavit sworn to by the prime suspect.
But the defence counsel to Abayomi, Mr Wilson Atirene, who has been providing free legal service to the suspect said his client had expressed his willingness to confront those he fingered as being sponsors of the explosion in which one person was confirmed dead.
His words:"Richard Abayomi has decided to physically and publicly confront his detractors. He's ready to confront his accusers and detractors in public at a forum organised by any independent authority to verify his claims if this will put an end to his misery and he wants it to happen sooner than later".
Besides the call for the face to face confrontation, Atirene raised alarm over the failing health of his client in police custody, stressing that Abayomi's health had deteriorated greatly since he was detained by the police on the orders of a magistrate court.
He explained that the state of the health of his client had worsened in the last one week, saying that he could no longer guarantee the longevity of the suspect after his encounter with some detectives.
He added: "The health of my client has completely deteriorated. Richard Abayomi is sick and he is lying critically ill in the custody of the Attorney General of the state where the court placed him. He was attended to by one Dr Amos of the Government House clinic who prescribed a long list of medication.
"He needs critical eye surgery to save his second eye, but even in the state of pain, he has elected to state that he is tired of his current stand-of in the prosecution of the case and that he fell short of mentioning names and roles of persons that gave him the materials contained in his brother's car which eventually exploded at the government secretariat."
Abayomi also lost one of his eyes in the explosion which his lawyer said needed urgent medical attention outside the country.
Atirene stressed that, "the blast took place in Osogbo, the trial is in Osogbo, the office of the Inspector General of Police investigated and detained the suspect for four months and he was charged to court in Osogbo and to that extent, therefore, any person wishing to move him from Osogbo for any purpose should give an undertaking that if anything unwholesome happens to him the responsibility will be his."
The lawyer further revealed that he refused to procure the drugs recommended for Abayomi for fear of being held responsible in the event of any complications after what the suspect went through in the hands of the detectives from Abuja.