An appeal case filed by Comrade Abiodun Bamigboye, the Acting National Chairperson of the Socialist Party of Nigeria (SPN) and the Commissioner of Police in Oyo State came up on Tuesday, at Court 6, Oyo State High Court in Ibadan, the state capital.
DAILY POST gathered that the appeal is against the ruling of the Magistrate Court 9, Iyaganku, Ibadan delivered on the 5th of December, 2019 by Magistrate (Mrs) M.A Amale Ajimoti, that Barrister Adeyinka Olumide-Fusika, being a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, SAN should discontinue his appearance as a defence counsel for Bamigboye.
Bamigboye, also doubled as the Oyo State Co-ordinator of Campaign for Democratic and Workers Rights (CDWR) was charged for a criminal offence by the Nigeria police through the office of the then AIG Leye Oyebade, in Oshogbo obviously at the instance of the management of a food processing company in Ibadan.
Bamigboye and other members of CDWR in the state had given their support to the struggle against poor and slavery working condition embarked upon between 2nd and 4th of October, 2020 by hundreds of casual workers at the SUMAL Foods in Ibadan.
The case was, however, on Tuesday referred for reassignment by the presiding Judge, Justice O.M Fadeyi, due to her inability to accommodate the attribute exhibited by Bamigboye who as an appellant appeared in person during the proceeding.
Bamigboye brought to the notice of the court at the time the presiding judge was trying to adjourn the case that the counsel to the commissioner of police had been consistently absent from the court since the beginning of the matter and also refused to respond to his brief of argument since 20 February 2020 when he has been served.
He appealed to the court to allow the case to be heard in the next adjourned date should the counsel to the commissioner of police as usual fails to present in court.
Fadeyi, while responding to the plea by Bamigboye deepened her justification for the adjournment with an assumption that the absence of the counsel to the commissioner of Police could have been informed by the End SARS protest.
The presiding judge, therefore, wrote and pronounced her decision to refer the case for reassignment.
The judge in her decision ordered that the case be referred for a reassignment after which he rose.
