Man charged with using machete to threaten chief, family

Sikiru Tijani, a male, was charged on Tuesday by Magistrate Adeola Olatunbosun of the Yaba Magistrates’ Court in Lagos State with allegedly attacking individuals and forcibly seizing property belonging to the Thomas Olufuwa family in the state’s Idiapaye region.

Five counts of assault, forcible entry, and malicious property damage were filed against the 59-year-old.

The crimes committed violate Section 170(1)(b) and are punishable under Sections 412, 53, 52, 172, 3, and 50 of the Lagos State Criminal Law of 2015, according to police prosecutor Rita Momoh.

In part, the charge read, “That you, Sikiru Tijani, and others now at large, sometime in 2018, at Idiapaye, Lagos State, within the magisterial district of this court, did assault Baale Thomas and his family members by threatening to inflict machete cuts on them and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 170(1)(b) of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2015 and punishable under Section 172 of the same Law.

“That you, Sikiru Tijani, and others now at large did willfully and unlawfully damage economic trees belonging to the Olufuwa Royal Family sometime in 2018 at Idiapaye, Lagos State, within the magisterial district of this court, and thereby committed an offence punishable under Section 52 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2015,” the complaint reads.

But the accused entered a not guilty plea.

The magistrate granted him bail for N1 million with three similar-sized sureties.