Ademola Solesi, the legal representative for embattled Isese activist Abdulazeez Adegbola, known as Tani Olohun, has revealed the cause for his client’s absence during a court session on Tuesday.
Adegbola faced three new defamation charges from Islamic Cleric Labeeb Lagbaji on October 24, 2023, with an additional charge filed on Friday by the Madrasat Muhammad, a Muslim group, over allegations of Quran burning.
Solesi, speaking to us, explained that Adegbola declined to attend the scheduled court session on Tuesday, November 7, 2023, as he had not consulted with his lawyer and thus did not sign the court summons.”
He said, “Yes, he was not present in court today because he was not properly served with the court summons.
“He was served. He was given the summon, but he did not sign for it. He requested to speak with his lawyer, and a call was put through for network reasons; the call didn’t get across to me; he wanted to know if he should collect the summon.
“Now the question is, is it right to serve criminal summon to someone already in detention? It’s another thing if he is outside; if he has his freedom, then you can serve him whatever you want to serve him.
“Now he has four cases hanging on him.”
Adegbola was arrested on August 19 and charged to court on a five-count charge of alleged criminal conspiracy, stirring public disturbance, disturbance of public peace, criminal defamation of character, and intentional insult before the Chief Magistrates’ Court.
Corroborating Solesi’s comment, the prosecuting counsel, U.S Imam, stated that Adegbola’s refusal to sign for the new court summons stalled the scheduled hearing on Tuesday.
“A registered organisation called Madrasat Muhammad petitioned Adegbola over his alleged act of burning a Quran; he, however, refused to accept the summon when he was presented with it thus leading to his absence from court today,” he explained.
