BY GBENGA OLARINOYE

OSOGBO—The prime suspect in the June 15, 2007 car bomb that exploded inside a Peugeot 505 saloon car at the Ministry of Water Resources, Abere,Osun State, Richard Abayomi Adesanmi, has admitted that he was lodged at the State Government House, Osogbo, instead of prison custody by the ousted administration of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.

Adesanmi was ordered to be remanded in prison custody by Magistrate (now Justice) Jide Falola on March 10, 2008 alongside some chieftains of defunct Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, who were accused of complicity in the bomb blast. When the case came up for further hearing yesterday before Justice Adeyinka Aderibigbe, Adesanmi confessed that he was not taken to prison as ordered by the court.

Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice in the state, Mr. Wale Afolabi, while cross examining the suspect, confronted Adesanmi with the fact that he was lodged at Government House instead of the prison, and the suspect admitted.

A prison warden, Mr. Toye Ayotunde Ajibade had on April 11, 2014 told the court that Adesanmi was not in prison custody for close to three years.

Ajibade, testifying before the court, said Adesanmi was not brought back to the prison until November 26, 2010 when Governor Rauf Aregbesola was declared winner of the April 14, 2007 gubernatorial election by the Appeal Court.

The prison warden said Abayomi spent two years; eight months and sixteen days outside prison without any bail paper presented to prisons authorities.

Adesanmi also admitted that he made a contrary statement to the Police where he claimed that one of the occupants of the car that exploded, “Gboyega” who was at large, told him that they were coming to Osogbo to “shake the people of the state.”

According to him, “My cousin, Gboyega, called me on phone while I was in Ondo that he was going to buy an alternator for his car in Ibadan. I was in a hotel when he called. Gboyega came to pick me up at the hotel. I met two other persons; Henry and Taiwo, a stammerer in the car. The vehicle gave us problem on the road. We had to stop several times and push it to work. When we got to Ile-Ife, Gboyega told me that we would branch in Osogbo to collect something. Few minutes later, Gboyega told me we were in Osogbo, because I did not know the place.

“On getting to Osogbo, we went straight for a mechanic who changed the battery of the vehicle. We turned back to the expressway to Ibadan. But the vehicle developed fault few minutes later. We were advised by some people to push it away from the road and park it inside the government secretariat, Abere.

“Gboyega and Henry opened the car bonnet to fix the car and I walked away to find something to eat because I did not eat before I left Ondo. I wanted to buy bread and coke but I could not get them. I later bought some sweets. I went back to the car and I sat in the back seat with Taiwo, the stammerer.

“While seated, I saw a man in a white dress coming and I wanted to ask him where I could get a canteen. Not quite some seconds after I stepped out of the car, I heard a very loud noise. I saw that I was soaked in blood. Gboyega took me to a clinic in the government secretariat. When I regained consciousness, I saw policemen around me. I asked after Gboyega and the police said they did not see anybody like him.”