Adesina Ogunlana, the lawyer to Nollywood actor Olanrewaju James Omiyinka popularly known as Baba Ijesha has said his client is traumatised in police detention.
In a letter addressed to the Lagos police commissioner, Mr. Ogunlana said his client should be released on bail, adding Baba Ijesha’s colleague Yomi Fabiyi is ready to stand surety for him.
Baba Ijesha has been in police custody since his arrest in April for allegedly defiling the 14-year-old foster child of a popular comedian Princess.
Nollywood actor, Yomi Fabiyi and some others have protested against the continuous detention of the actor, claiming that it was a bailable offense.
Lagos police spokesman Olumuyiwa Adejobi on Friday said the decision to hold on to Baba Ijesha was based on the criminal charges against him.
Adejobi said that the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP), under the Lagos State Ministry of Justice, advised the police to detain Baba Ijesha pending when he would be charged to court.
Ogunlana in his letter urged the police to release Baba Ijesha on bail, adding that the accused has become abnormally weak and lean in detention.
Part of the letter reads: “We are aware that a piece of legal advice on our client’s matter has been issued about two weeks ago, disclosing prospective charges of bailable character.
“From all indications, the investigation has been concluded in his matter and it is inconceivable that the issuance of legal advice will now be a basis for the denial of bail as you have been widely reported in the press to have claimed.
“We submit that the continuous detention of Mr Olanrewaju James Omiyinka at your SCID Panti Yaba facility, for about thirty days now, in our respectful view, is in gross breach of his fundamental human rights as cognisable under the 1999 constitution the grand norm of the nation’s legal architecture.
“As of today when I met with Omiyinka in the company of his thespian colleague and ready surety, Mr Yomi Fabiyi, he appeared traumatised, emaciated, and walked with a limp in his right leg. May I assure you, sir, that Mr Omiyinka is not a flight risk and he is prepared to face trial.”
