An Osun State Magistrates Court sitting in Osogbo, on Tuesday, sentenced a 31-year-old man, Rotimi Orowole, to a three-year imprisonment with hard labour for false accusations.
Orowole had claimed the former Registrar of the Federal Polytechnic, Ede, Osun State, Dr Alhassan Ogunleye, contracted him to assassinate the then Rector of the institution, Dr. John Edaogbogun; the Chief Medical Director of the institution, Dr. Olofu Romanus and one Mr. Elkanah Aruwajoye.
Ogunleye had told the court that on June 2, 2019, some officers of the defunct federal SARS from Adeniji Adele Police Station, Lagos State, arrested him at his residence in Osogbo.
The former registrar, after his arrest, was taken to a police station in Lagos State, where Orowole accused him as the person who gave him a pump action gun to assassinate three people which included the rector.
The case was later transferred to Osun State, where the police, after investigation, found Ogunleye not culpable.
The police, thereafter, charged Rotimi to court on four counts of conspiracy, possession of firearms, false accusation, and criminal defamation.
The prosecutor from the state Ministry of Justice, Mr Abiodun Badiora, had during the trial, told the court that Orowole, a native of Ile Ife, conspired with other people to raise false allegations against the former registrar.
Delivering judgment on the case, Magistrate Oyindamola Daramola found him guilty in three counts of possession of firearms, false accusation, and criminal defamation.
Daramola said she considered the fact that Orowole was a first-time offender with no previous criminal record.
She thereafter sentenced Orowole to two years imprisonment with hard labour for possession of firearms with an option of N50,000 fine.
For the count bordering on false accusation, she sentenced Orowole to two years imprisonment with hard labour and an option of N50,000 fine.
The convict was also sentenced to three years imprisonment with hard labour in count four bordering on criminal defamation with an option of N50,000.
She however said all the terms must run concurrently beginning from March 18, 2025.
