Police man beaten by suspect in court and later escapes.

A 22-year-old man who was ordered to be remanded in Olokuta Prison custody has escaped from court while being led to the prison van.

Adegboyega Dauda, alongside 11 others, was arraigned on Tuesday before an Akure Chief Magistrate's Court for allegedly beating up a Police Constable, Sunday Oluwole, and stabbing him with broken bottles.

Mr. Dauda was also accused of obstructing the police constable from carrying out his duty. The other accused persons were Pius Daniel, 25; Igbekele Samuel, 28; Godday Odoh, 41; Tunde During, 40; Okechukwu Clement, 32; Sunday Obezie, 30; John Aaron, 21; Ifedayo Ogunleye, 21; Kolade Ibiloye, 37; Eze James, 32 and Christ Adeko, 32.

The accused were also alleged to have collected the sum of N40,000 and a Nokia handset valued at N16,000 from one John Ihejirika under false pretense and thereafter stabbed him with knife and broken bottles all over his body. The incident took place on May 18 at about 11:30 a.m. at Ojumu Street, Akure. They all pleaded 'not guilty' to the five-count charge.

Although Chief Magistrate, Akin Akintoye had ordered that they be remanded in prison and adjourned the case till Thursday for bail consideration, it was, however, reassigned to Magistrate's Court 5. However, when the case came up on Thursday at Court 5, Police Prosecutor, Ayodele Atandeyi, told the court that the fifth accused, Mr. Dauda, had escaped from the court premises on their way to the police van.

The case, however, assumed a new dimension when Mr. Ihejirika did a u-turn by telling the court that those arraigned were businessmen randomly arrested by the police, adding that the police failed to arrest the real culprits.

"They [the accused] are not the people that took money from me and injured me. In the presence of the police, I was beaten up. It wasn't these people that injured the police officer. It was the '419′ that injured him when they were throwing bottles.

When the DPO, 'B' Division arrived the scene, he ordered that people should be arrested house-to-house when the '419′ had already escaped," he said. Counsel to the one of the accused, Olu Alade, prayed the court to dismiss all the charges, pointing out that the remaining three charges cannot stand on their own.

In her ruling, the Presiding Magistrate, Charity Adeyanju granted the accused bail with N150,000 each and one surety each in like sum and adjourned the case till July 2 for hearing

-naij