Date: 2018-02-20

A medical practitioner in Kwara State, Dr. Ayodele Joseph, was, yesterday, ordered by Magistrate O. A. Adeniyi of Ilorin Magistrate's Court to be remanded in Oke-Kura Maximum Prison, Ilorin, for allegedly stealing medical equipment of his colleague worth N25 million. The prosecutor, Inspector Reuben Kolawole, had told the court that the suspect, Dr. Ayodele Joseph, committed criminal trespass, mischief, house breaking by night contrary to Sections 348, 327, 356 and 287 of the Penal Code.

Inspector Kolawole told the court that on July 20, 2017 at about midnight, the suspect, Ayodele Joseph, of the popular Ayodele Group of Medical Hospitals, Ilorin, criminally trespassed into Group Medical Centre along Tipper Garage, Tanke area, Ilorin, destroyed the entrance gate and doors to gain access into the hospital and made away with all the hospital equipment, power generating sets and other items valued at about N25 million, property of Dr Rafiu Ajiboye. However, the suspect, Ayodele Joseph, neither pleaded guilty or not guilty to the charges, as he kept mum.

His counsel, Akeem Ijaiya, pleaded with the court to grant the medical practitioner a status of self-recognition being a very popular practitioner in the state.

However, counsel to the complainant, Dr. Dauda Osu, insisted that the freedom of the suspect would jeopardise further investigation of the case. Magistrate Adeniyi, in her ruling, ordered that the suspect be remanded in Oke-Kura Maximum Prison till March 5, the next date of adjournment.