Just In: Embattled Actor, Baba Ijesha’s Health Worsens In Detention, Unable To Walk Properly

The embattled Yoruba actor, Olanrewaju James, popularly known as Baba Ijesha, is traumatised and walks with difficulties in police detention, his lawyer, Adesina Ogunlana, has said.

Mr Ogunlana, a former chair of the Nigerian Bar Association, Ikeja branch, said this in a letter addressed to the Lagos Commissioner of Police seeking Baba Ijesha’s bail on Friday.

Actor Baba Ijesha is under investigation by the Lagos State police command on allegations of rape and has been in police detention since April 22 for the alleged offence.

The actor is being accused by a Nigerian comedienne, Princess, of raping a minor (when she was 7-year-old) who was kept in her care.

In a letter addressed to the Lagos police commissioner, Mr Ogunlana, who doubles as the chairperson of the Radical Agenda Movement In The Nigerian Bar Association, (RAMINBA), said his client should be released on bail.

He also added that Baba Ijesha’s colleague and close pal, Yomi Fabiyi, is ready to stand as a surety for him.

“As of today when I met with Omiyinka in the company of his thespian colleague and ready surety, Mr Yomi Fabiyi, he appeared traumatised, emaciated, and walked with a limp in his right leg. May I assure you, sir, that Mr Omiyinka is not a flight risk and he is prepared to face trial,” the letter reads in part.

In the letter, the lawyer lamented Baba Ijesha’s continuous detention at the SCID Panti Yaba facility for almost a month, saying ‘‘it is in gross breach of his fundamental human rights as cognisable under the 1999 constitution, the grand norm of the nation’s legal architecture’’.

“We are aware that a piece of legal advice on our client’s matter has been issued about two weeks ago, disclosing prospective charges of bailable character.

“From all indications, the investigation has been concluded in his matter and it is inconceivable that the issuance of legal advice will now be a basis for the denial of bail as you have been widely reported in the press to have claimed.