Ogd Reports Efcc Officers to Lamourde and IG for calling Him a killer

Former governor of Ogun State, Otunba Gbenga Daniel, has petitioned the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), urging the body to investigate and sanction two police officers seconded to it who claimed before a law court that he was a killer and patron of a killer squad, should the allegations be found to be untrue.
The two police officers, Ekele Ihinacho and Danladi Yathah, made the allegations in counter-affidavits filed on behalf of the EFCC before a High Court in Abeokuta, Ogun State, in the two cases the instituted by the anti-grant agency against  Daniel.
In a letter by his lawyers, Bayo Osipitan and Co, dated June 13, 2012 and addressed to the Acting Chairman of the EFCC, Ibrahim Lamorde, Daniel noted that the two officers deposed to the counter-affidavits to oppose his applications for bail in the two cases, one of which has been discontinued.
In the letter, signed by Prof. Taiwo Osipitan (SAN), and copied to the Acting Inspector General of Police, Daniel further noted that the depositions were accorded wide publicity in the print and other news media, adding that these baseless allegations of being a murderer and of sponsoring a killer squad has adversely affected him.
“The publication has exposed and continues to expose our client to suffer hatred, and ridicule in the eyes of  right thinking members of the society within and outside Nigeria,”  Daniel’s lawyers said in the letter.
According to them: “The attempt by Danladi Yathah in his counter-affidavit to link our client with the death of Apagun Olumide falls flat in the face of the statement made by Apagun Olumide to investigating officers of the EFCC.
“Evidently, Apagun Olumide’s statements were made under caution. Therefore, contrary to the depositions in the counter-affidavit of Danladi Yathah, Apagun Olumide was a suspect and not a potential prosecution witness. Nowhere in the statement did Apagun Olumide implicate our client.
“Finally, the presiding Judge, Hon. Justice Mabekoje, in his ruling on the bail application, held that there was no evidence before him linking our client with the death of Apagun Olumide. None of the prosecution witnesses made any written statement o the aforementioned officers on the alleged killer squad.
“We note that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and her officers are not vested with the power to investigate homicide cases under the enabling law.
Consequently, police officers posted to the EFCC lack the power to determine the culpability or otherwise of our client in the allegation of sponsoring a killer squad. Such allegation can only be investigated by officers of the State Homicide Unit who are so trained.
“If we may ask, why have these officers failed to refer their findings of the alleged killer squad to the Homicide Unit of the Ogun State Police Command?
“The answer is very obvious. The allegation is baseless. This also explains why in the two counter-affidavits, they omitted to mention the names of the persons who informed them that our client maintains a killer squad.
“Our client’s humble prayer is that your commission should cause an investigation to be conducted into the allegations of being a killer and also a patron of a killer squad, which have been levelled against our client by Messrs Ekele Iheanacho and Danladi Yathah. “Our client further requests that the said officers be sanctioned by your commission in the event of it being found that their said allegations against him are untrue.”
In his counter-affidavit, Ekele Iheanacho had alleged: “that most of the witnesses are very afraid of their lives and that of their families as they are all attesting to the fact that the applicant has always maintained a killer squad (This was also revealed in the course of our investigation) who are ready to hunt down and silence every perceived enemy of the applicant.
“That the applicant, if released on bail, will scuttle the smooth hearing of this case as he will tamper with some of the witnesses”.
Osipitan said paragraphs 14 to 17 of Yathah’s counter affidavit were very damaging to Daniel’s reputation.
They read: “That some of the proposed prosecution witness are civil servants in the employment of Ogun State Government who worked with him as the Executive Governor of Ogun State and who can be influenced by him if released on bail and allowed to have contacts with them.
“That as the time of deposing to this counter-affidavit, prosecution is already short of one of its vital witnesses in person of Apagun S. O. Olumide who died mysteriously on the day he reported at the EFCC in the company of his friend to apply for the release of his international passport to enable him travel to the United Kingdom on a business trip.
“That we also gathered that he called his friend that same evening, reminding him of his promise to accompany him to the office of the EFCC come Monday the following week but only for him to be reported dead the same night.
“That the EFCC has a lot of reservation on the release of the applicant and the implication on its witnesses as most of the witnesses are very afraid of their lives and that of their families as they are all attesting to the fact that the applicant has always maintained a killer squad (this was also revealed in the course of our investigation) who are ready to hunt down and silence every perceived enemy of the applicant