The star witness in the alleged murder of former Ekiti State National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) Chairman Omolafe Aderiye has spoken of how he was “tutored” to implicate eight persons accused of complicity in the crime.
The late Aderiye’s Personal Assistant, Gbolahan Okeowo, revealed that he secretly recorded the voices of the two aides of Governor Ayo Fayose whom he accused of “tutoring” him to write another statement which indicted the accused.
On trial for the ex-NURTW boss’ murder are: Bayo Aderiye (aka Ojugo), Niyi Adedipe (aka Apase), Sola Durodola, Oso Farotimi, Ajayi Kayode, Sola Adenijo (aka Solar) and Rotimi Olanbiwonnu (aka Mentilo).
Also implicated in the murder is a security aide to former Governor Kayode Fayemi, Deji Adesokan (aka Jarule) who has been declared wanted for Omolafe’s murder.
The governor’s aides are Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice Owoseni Ajayi and the Special Assistant on Public Communication and New Media Lere Olayinka.
Both Ajayi and Olayinka have denied any link with Okeowo in a chat with a weekend newspaper where Olayinka claimed that he had never met Okeowo. Ajayi accused Okeowo of committing perjury by recanting his evidence before an Ado-Ekiti High Court.
In an exclusive interview with The Nation on Thursday in Ado-Ekiti, Okeowo urged the National Security Adviser, the Inspector General of Police and the Director General of the Department of State Services (DSS) to investigate the call logs of Ajayi and Olayinka to unearth the conversations they had with him in connection with the murder case.
Okeowo reiterated his position in an affidavit of facts he deposed to at the Federal High Court, Akure – that all the seven persons standing trial and Adesokan who had been declared wanted knew nothing about the murder as the second statement he wrote at Ajayi’s office was used to frame them up.
The late NURTW chair’s aide disclosed that he was shocked to read the claims of both Ajayi and Olayinka in the said newspaper that they had nothing to do with him, adding that all his encounters with the duo were secretly recorded. He is to tender the recording at the appropriate time.
Okeowo said the two government officials told him that the first statement he volunteered at the state police headquarters “was too weak” to nail the murder suspects, hence the need to write another one to indict them.
Okeowo claimed that Ajayi, who was Special Adviser on Legal Matters and had not been confirmed as Attorney General at the time he wrote the second statement, called on the DPP to bring the case file.
According to him, the son of the deceased, Yinka Aderiye, younger brother of the deceased, Wale Ibidapo, the Permanent Secretary, Director of Public Prosecution, were there on the day he was allegedly coarced to write another incriminating statement against the suspects.
Okeowo revealed that the initial plan was to bring Yinka (the late Omolafe’s son) to court to testify against the accused persons even when he (Yinka) was not present at his father’s office where he was murdered.
He said somebody called the late Omolafe 15 minutes before he was murdered, adding: “My late boss was enthusiastic that a big man called him. The question now is, who is that big man? The phone with which he received the call was taken away by the killers.”
Okeowo explained: “At this juncture, I will implore the National Security Adviser, the Inspector General of Police and the Director General of DSS to investigate the call logs of Owoseni Ajayi. I am ready to surrender myself for full investigation to unravel the mysterious death of my late boss.
“These people saying they don’t know me, how come they have been calling me since? I received a call from (Lere) Olayinka on October 27 and Owoseni has been calling me through Yinka Aderiye, the son of my late boss. Let the NSA, IG and DG of DSS invite all of us.
“I want the IG to investigate the MTN call logs of Owoseni Ajayi and this will assist the whole world to know the truth. I want Owoseni Ajayi, Lere Olayinka and Yinka Aderiye, who is now Owoseni’s personal assistant, to be summoned to Abuja to explain all they know about this matter.
“They promised me a local government appointment on behalf of the governor if I could go ahead to indict all the seven persons on trial and Jarule on the murder of my boss but these people are innocent.
“It is ungodly and wicked for me to say what I have not seen after I had listened to a sermon of my pastor and I have gone to court to swear and depose to an affidavit because God is looking at all of us.
“Police knew nothing about what happened at Owoseni Ajayi’s office. They submitted their file to the DPP but it was Owoseni Ajayi who ordered the DPP to bring the file and that was where we wrote another statement indicting the innocent souls.
“Ajayi said all what his boss wanted to hear was that Jarule came down from the vehicle, waiting in company with Apase, that Jarule opened fire on my late boss and that there was a particular Hilux van at the opposite side of our office then.
“That inside the vehicle were (Bayo) Aderiye, Mentilo, Durodola, Farotimi, Adenijo, (Kayode) Ajayi. All these are fabricated lies; there was nothing like that on that day. I was with my boss on that day and there was nothing like that.
“I never saw anybody called Jarule on that day, I never saw Adedipe on that day. The statement I wrote at Owoseni Ajayi’s office was done under threat. That was the way I was tutored and coerced that day in his office but he never knew that he was recorded. I have my facts and figures and I will release them at the appropriate time.”
