The Police Vs Magistrate Akintayo

Comfort Obi

I first read the story in The Nation newspaper of April 9. “Magistrate detained for beating Orderly,” it read. It was a short story. Not much, content- wise. Yet, it was a bomb. I will do a brief re-cap.
Olagoke Akintayo, a Magistrate in Osun State, was arrested by the State Command of the Police on the orders the Osun State Commissioner of Police, John Moronike. Why? Akintayo came back home at about 5 p.m, and ordered his police orderly to open the gate for him. The Orderly, Oluwafemi Dada, apparently stung by the way the Magistrate ordered him to open the gate, refused to do so, reminding him that he was not his gateman. Akintoya’s wife, sensing trouble, went to open the gate by herself. When Akintayo drove in, he did the unimaginable. He pounced on his wife, beating her mercilessly. When his bewildered police orderly intervened, asking Olagoke to stop beating her, his “anger” boiled over. Akintayo pounced on the police- man, and beat him to a state of coma!
Moronike, the Police Commissioner was scandalised. He ordered for the arrest and detention of the Magistrate. He was detained at the State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID). His offence: Alleged assault and battery of his police orderly. The case has been charged to court.
Let me start by submitting that this magistrate has become a big embarrassment to his colleagues and the judiciary. I don’t know how the case will end in court. But I will be interested in knowing if Akintayo will remain a staff of the Osun State Judiciary. There are many reasons why he should not.
The first one is the allegation that he was allegedly drunk at the time of the incident. The question is, how can a drunk be a Magistrate? If by 5 p.m he was already, allegedly, drunk, I cringe at what his state would be in the night. But most important: If a suspect is arraigned before him for committing a crime under the influence of alcohol, how can he give a fair judgement?
The second is that he is temperamental. Just follow the story. He beat up his wife who kindly opened the gate for him, and then, also beat up his orderly who asked him to stop beating his wife. This man is ungrateful. His wife is not a gateman. If he so wanted somebody to be opening and closing his gate, he should have employed a Maiguard. Otherwise, he is not handicapped. Many big men, and women, come down from their cars to open their gates, and close them. The question is: If something as simple as opening the gate triggered his anger to boil over, how does he manage his anger in court? Does he abuse lawyers, policemen, plaintiffs, and suspects in his court at the slightest chance? It will be interesting to find out.
Thirdly, magistrate Akintayo is an alleged wife batterer. If he beat up his wife for being kind and nice to him, I cringe at what he would do to her if she ever gets upset with him in the house. Added to this is that he has no respect for his wife, and so, for womanhood. He reduced his wife to a gateman, and shamelessly beat her up before his police orderly. If any man is dragged to Akintayo’s court for wife battering, on which moral ground will he stand to preside over the case?
Number four is that Akintayo has no respect for the law, nor for Nigeria. His Orderly, Dada, was in uniform when he beat him up. If he had no respect for Dada as a human being, he ought to have respected the uniform. You are taught to respect the uniform of a law enforcement agent. You are taught not to touch a man in uniform. Dada, to be his Orderly, must have been assigned a rifle. What if Dada had shot him? The story would have been: Policeman shoots Magistrate!
I am impressed by Dada's comportment. He must be a well-mannered policeman. Otherwise, with his training, he wouldn’t have been the one beaten to a state of coma. It would have been Akintayo in coma. I am also impressed by the reaction of the members of the public, especially, members of the civil society who are insisting that Akintayo must face the full wrath of the law. And this, inspite of a couple of misdemeanor by the police same week. The most cruel and pathetic: The killing of three-year-old Kausarat Saliu, and the more cruel detention of her father after killing her. I hope Akintayo would face the full wrath of the law.
When he was picked and detained by the police, the plan was for him to be arraigned in court the next day. Unfortunately, it fell within the period of the Easter holidays. The pleading by some of his colleagues was that he be given bail in self-recognition, and not be kept in detention during the public holidays. That was done. But on Wednesday, April 16, when he ought to have appeared in court, he did not. It is strongly being rumoured that he is pleading for an out-of-court settlement. He says he has settled the hospital bill of the policeman. Of what worth is that? What about paying for damages and assault? And most important, after this disgraceful incident, will he go back to the courts and sit in judgement over people? It seems to me that he would have a more flourishing career in boxing than in the judiciary.
One of the reasons Nigerians are clamouring for the withdrawal of policemen from some categories of Nigerians is because of the abuse of the priviledge. They turn policemen into their houseboys and housegirls. They carry their wive’s handbags, even in the market, sweep their rooms and premises, and clean their shoes and those of their children. They become their children’s escorts, and run every imaginable and unimaginable errand for them. They neither give them food, nor a place to sleep, and/or take their bath. They keep them outside, like nobodies, leaving them at the mercy of everything, including the weather. I’ve always wondered: How can you sleep when those who ensure your security are so disrespectfully treated? It is the same question I ask women who treat their housemaids as sub-human beings. How could they, when they leave their children, their kitchens, and their houses, in the hands of those housemaids? But back to Magistrate Akintayo.
In more civilised countries, he would have resigned since after the ugly incident. As it is, he should, please, be shown the way out of the Judiciary, and be prosecuted. Since he is a Mike Tyson, let him go into boxing, and meet his colleagues there. Okay?