Justice Olayinka Faaji of the Federal High High Court, Lagos, on Friday discharged and acquitted Ikorodu based chieftain of the All Progressives Congress, APC and owner of Western Funeral Home, Ijede, Oluwatosin Onamade of cybercrime charge filed against him by the former chairman of Ijede LCDA, Fatiu Jimoh Salisu.
The court acquitted Onamade of two counts charge of cybercrime brought against him by Fatiu who had accused Onamade of accusing him of being the mastermind of the murder of Godfrey Ifeanyi, a staff of Western Funeral Home in 2021 in the build up to the local government primary elections in which Fatiu was seeking a second term in office and Onamade was a contestant.
Ifeanyi was murdered after some thugs allegedly hired by Fatiu invaded Onamade’s office and attacked his staff.
Fatiu, in the charge before the Federal High Court claimed that Onamade committed cybercrime by circulating his name on various Whatsapp groups accusing him of being responsible for the murder of Ifeanyi thereby tarnishing his inage.
He had also claim Onamade granted a media interview where he mentioned his name as the sponsor of the attack.
He further claimed the allegation prevented him from getting his party’s ticket for a second term in office as council chairman which has affected his political career.
The charge read ‘that you, Oluwatosin Onamade ‘M’, sometime in May 2021 in Lagos within the jurisdiction of this Honorable Court did commit, an illegal act to wit; intentionally circulating a grossly offensive publication through your
Facebook/Instagram handle which you knew to be false, for the purpose of
causing insult to one Hon. Fatiu Salisu, ljede LCDA Chairman by accusing him
of the murder of late Tony Godfrey, you thereby committed an offence
punishable under section 24 of the Cyber Crimes Act, 2015.”
Count 2 of the charge also read ” that you, Oluwatosin Onamade ‘M’, sometime in May 2021 in Lagos within the jurisdiction of this Honorable Court knowingly caused the transmission of communication through your WhatsApp to harass one Hon. Fatiu Salisu, ljede LCDA Chairman by falsely alleging that he sponsored the attack at
Western Funeral Home Limited office and murder of late Tony Godfrey, you
thereby committed an offence punishable under section 24(2)(a) of the
Cybercrimes Act, 2015.”
During trial, the prosecuton counsel, Omotayo Olatubosun, called two witnesses. The first witness, a Chief Superintendent of Police, CSP, Omaka Udodinma told the court that a petiton was forwarded to his team for investigation by the then Inspector General of Police, IGP, from the office of former Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola.
In his ruling, Justice Faaji said that the prosecution failed to prove its allegations against Onamade.
The court noted that evidence presented by the prosecution did not show Onamade made such allegations and circulated them on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter(now X) as there was no evidence they were found on such social media platforms which would have supported the allegation of cybercrime.
It further noted that the alleged Whatsapp group chats did not show Onamade’s telephone number to suggest he was responsible for the circulation of the allegation.
The judge further ruled the first prosecution witness failed to conduct thorough investigations into the matter.
Justice Faaji noted that the two counts carry a punishment of 10 and 3 years imprisonment each if convicted or a fine of N7million and N25million each respectively.
The court therefore discharged and acquitted Onamade of all the charges.
The murder suspects; Olanrewaju Adebiyi a.k.a Maja, Atunrase Sodiq, Shittu Michael Olawale, Olaide Opeifa A.K.A. Ote and Jamiu Omosanya A.K.A. Orobo are presently standing trial for murder before Justice Hakeem Oshodi of the Lagos High Court, Ikeja.