Interested groups in Ekiti State are beginning to express apprehension over delay in the prosecution of the suspended Chief Medical Director of the State Specialist Hospital, Ikere-Ekiti, Dr. Olubiyi Olaolu Abidemi, for allegedly beating his wife, Mrs Adenike Olubiyi to pulp.
Following wide reportage of the highly demeaning act, the doctor was immediately suspended by the State Government and a charge was later slammed on him in the court accordingly.
The alleged fighting doctor committed the offence during a disagreement with the wife at their residence located within St. David Hospital Compound, Ifaki-Ekiti, on Thursday, 14th September 2023.
Dr. (Mrs) Olubiyi , a lecturer at Ekiti State University, Ado-Ekiti, reportedly sustained serious injuries on her neck and was admitted into the accident and emergency unit of Ekiti State University Teaching Hospital, Ado-Ekiti.
Available records indicated that the matter was charged to the Magistrate Court, Ado Ekiti on the 2nd October, 2023 and same has been adjourned severally.
The unwarranted adjournments, have started to elicit apprehension amongst the populace, it is believed that some powerful interests were surreptitiously working to subvert justice in the matter.
A source and interested party, who craved strict anonymity, informed that at the commencement of the litigation, the Police Prosecutor informed the Court on the 31st October, 2023, that the case file had been transferred to the Ministry of Justice in Ado Ekiti for legal opinion.
The Police Prosecutor told the court that he was awaiting legal counsel from the Director of Public Prosecutions to be able to prosecute the matter diligently and the case has been dragging since then, being subjected to winding legal crucible .
The source within the concerned groups said: “From October 31, 2023, the case was adjourned to 14th December, 2023, and was further adjourned to 26th of January, 2024, this has been the horrible trend and trajectory the case had been subjected to.
“But to the surprise of the packed full Court on January 24, 2024, the Chief Magistrate through its Clerks, informed all that, all matters that are not ready for prosecution should take a fresh date and the case of Dr Adenike Olubiyi also suffered the similar fate, because the office of the director of Public Prosecutions has failed to forward the legal advice.
“We are suspecting a foul play in this matter and Governor Biodun Oyebanji, whom we know very well as a rabid hater of Gender Based Violence and the Chief Judge of our dear state, Justice John Adeyeye and the Honourable Attorney general and Commissioner for Justice, Mr. Dayo Apata SAN should deploy the potency of their offices to oversee this case and ensure that the needful are done”.
The source lamented that incidences of Gender Based Violence in Ekiti State are now growing exponentially by rearing its ugly heads due to seeming leniency and crass ineptitude being exhibited in the handling of the perpetrators particularly during investigation.
The source stated that perpetrators of this kind of horrendous act should be held liable for breach of the law as a way of sanitizing the society of injustice.
Also, the source stated: “Justice must be served by all means, not minding whose ox is gored. Justice for one, is justice for all”.
At the inception of the case, it was gathered that what triggered the trouble was that the doctor’s wife refused to take care of his pregnant mistress, this infuriated the Consultant Family Physician.
