Four persons, including a woman, yesterday appeared before a Yaba Chief Magistrates’ Court for allegedly exhuming their landlord’s body and selling his property.
They are Jimoh Abisile, 52; Gbade Bakare, 56; Isaiah Bakare, 45 and Silifatu Abisile, 60.
They are facing a-five-count charge of conspiracy, kidnapping, breach of the peace, forgery and false assumption of authority.
Prosecutor Williams Ologun said the accused committed the offence on November 1, at Ishola Daniel Street, Oshodi, Lagos.
He alleged that the accused conspired to illegally sell the house they were living in, which did not belong to them.
Ologun said a prospective buyer had insisted that they should relocate the grave in front of the house before he would pay.
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“My Lord, they forged an exhumation of body permit from Oshodi-Isolo Local Government and dug up the body of the house owner, Sumonu Bakare.
“They kidnapped the son of the deceased, Gbenro Bakare, who is crippled, thinking he is the only surviving child of the deceased,” he said.
Ologun said the first and second accused were relations of the deceased, while the third and fourth accused were long time tenants.
He said the third and fourth accused had registered for a change of name to ‘Bakare’, which was not their real name, claiming to be the children of the deceased.
The accused pleaded not guilty.
Chief Magistrate Peter Ojo granted them N500,000 bail with two sureties each in the like sum.
He said the sureties must be relations of the defendants and must live within the court’s jurisdiction.
Ojo said each of the sureties must show evidence of three years’ tax payment to the Lagos State Government and be employed.
He adjourned the case till January 10 for trial.
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