Osun Court Bans Police from Harassing Senator Oyewumi

Court Bars Police From Harassing Osun Senator Oyewumi

The Osun State High Court has delivered a stinging rebuke to the Nigeria Police Force, declaring that repeated invitations, intimidation and threats of arrest against Senator Olalere Oyewumi were unconstitutional and permanently restraining the police from further action over the matter. The ruling lands at a politically combustible moment in Osun, where the governorship election…

Atlantic Post

July 30, 2026

3–4 minutes

The ruling lands at a politically combustible moment in Osun, where the governorship election is scheduled for 15 August 2026 and the police say they are already investigating 30 politically motivated killings linked to the build-up to the poll.

Justice J.O. Owolawi delivered the judgment on 23 June 2026, in a fundamental rights enforcement suit filed by Oyewumi against the Inspector-General of Police, the Assistant Inspector-General of Police, Zone XI, the Osun State Commissioner of Police and the Nigeria Police Force.

The judge noted that the respondents were served with the court processes and hearing notices but failed to file any counter-affidavit, leaving the senator’s evidence unchallenged.

That failure mattered. Under long-settled Nigerian law, uncontroverted affidavit evidence may be treated as admitted where it is credible and sufficient, a principle repeatedly recognised in appellate decisions.

On that basis, the court accepted the senator’s case and found that the police conduct amounted to “wrongful, unlawful and unconstitutional” interference with his constitutional rights.

The practical effect is sweeping. The court issued a perpetual injunction restraining the police and their officers from disturbing, arresting, intimidating, harassing, inviting, molesting or otherwise threatening the senator in connection with the matter.

The ruling is being read in political circles as more than a personal victory for Oyewumi; it is also a warning that the justice system is watching closely as Osun’s security crisis intensifies ahead of the governorship contest.

Oyewumi’s own political journey has sharpened the interest in the case. Punch reported that the lawmaker, who represents Osun West, defected from the Peoples Democratic Party to Accord in March 2026, while The Cable also reported the move and his formal registration with Accord in Ward 9, Irewole Local Government Area.

His switch followed the broader realignment around Governor Ademola Adeleke, who is now in Accord as Osun’s 2026 election battle lines harden.

That realignment matters because Osun is heading into one of its most bitterly contested elections in recent memory.

INEC’s official materials place the governorship poll on Saturday, 15 August 2026, after the commission adjusted earlier dates, and the police have publicly acknowledged the scale of the security problem by confirming the investigation of 30 suspected politically motivated killings.

The police leadership itself has become part of the story. State House records show that Olatunji Rilwan Disu was ratified as Inspector-General of Police on 2 March 2026, meaning the institution now under fire in Osun is being led by a man whose early tenure has already been defined by promises of reform and harder action on crime.

The Guardian reported that the Force Public Relations Officer, CSP Anietie Iniedu, said the police were probing the Osun killings and would not shield anyone found culpable.

But the politics are as fierce as the policing. The APC governorship campaign council has accused Oyewumi of politicising the violence and trying to divert attention from unresolved killings, including those of APC figures such as Remi Abass and Saheed Oyegunju.

In a statement reported by The Nation and The Sun, the council urged the senator to cooperate with investigators, insisting that justice must not be selective.

That exchange is the real danger in Osun now: the overlap of law enforcement, party combat and unresolved deaths. When one side says it is being hunted by the police and the other insists it is being shielded from scrutiny, the battlefield shifts from the campaign trail to the courtroom and back again.

The High Court’s decision has now thrown a fresh legal barrier around the senator, but it has done nothing to cool the larger fight over accountability, political killings and control of the narrative in Osun.

For Osun voters, the deeper question is not simply whether Senator Oyewumi was harassed. It is whether the state’s security architecture can investigate politically charged killings without looking partisan, and whether the coming election can survive the atmosphere of suspicion already surrounding it. The court has spoken. The political war in Osun, however, is still very much alive.