Barrister Morakinyo Ogele, an Akure based human rights activist has urged the Ondo State government to appeal the judgement that discharged and acquitted the founder of Sotitobire Praising Chapel Prophet Alpha Babatunde over the disappearance of a boy in his church in Akure the Ondo State capital.
Recall that the Ondo State High Court had in 2020 sentenced prophet Babatunde to life imprisonment but in December, the Appeal Court nullified the High Court judgment, saying the Prophet could not be punished based on circumstantial evidence.
But Ogele, while reacting, described the Appeal Court judgment as being biased and not considering all factors involved in the case before it freed the Prophet, claiming that the suspect could be punished on circumstantial evidence before the law.
He said: “If the state is not comfortable with the judgment, it should appeal at the Supreme Court.
“I don’t want to start analysing or otherwise but what I am still saying is that you can convict on circumstantial evidence.
“Let me tell you, there is something we call Occupiers Liability. If I came to your house to greet you, and anything happened to me, you are going to be held responsible because I can’t come to greet you without having access to your house.
“So if I have access to your house and something happens there, you are going to be held responsible. We call it occupiers liability.
“Those occupying the place (church) must be held responsible for the missing of the boy.
“How could you register a boy within your care in the church and the boy just disappeared like that? And they are saying that there is nothing like circumstantial evidence.
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“So what I am still saying is that, I think the judgment is wrong and the state can proceed to the Supreme Court.
“The Appeal Court should have considered all I have said.
“Prophet Alfa Babatunde should explain how a boy who registered in his church as number 86 or 84, and it just disappeared like that and he is the owner of that place. He is the controller, the alpha and omega of that Church, then he should find out, he should look for this boy.
“And according to his reaction, calling the parents of the boy, beating them up. This is the impunity we are talking about in Nigeria. You can’t do that in a well-organised society.
“He must find that boy out, he must be held responsible for everything.
“Because that is how the case will die down and we won’t know the whereabouts of the boy for ever unless the state government goes to the Supreme Court.
“Had it been the Appeal Court had upheld the judgement of the lower court, the mother can go to court to file damages but now she can not do anything because the Prophet had been exonerated one way or the other.
“A boy under your care, worshipping inside your church of which you are the over all head, and there is nobody who came to give evidence that his mother had come to take this boy away during the church service.
“Where is the Boy? This is the question now but I hope the state will appeal the judgement. They won’t let the case just go scot free like that. If they don’t go, I may try it because it is unfair and very bad and illegal. He Prophet Sotitobire must explain the whereabouts of the boy.
“It could have been another scenario if the parents of the boy had left the church before the incident occurrence. But they were still conducting service when the boy disappeared. Then they should look for this boy. Where is this boy?”
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