How I Secured Freedom For Guru - Lawyer

National Encomium Vol. 4 No 11 Tuesday August 1, 2000

'How I secured freedom for Guru – Lawyer'

Mr. Adesina Ogunlana is the lawyer who led Sat Guru Maharaji’s defence team. In this interview with us, he explained why he accepted the brief as well as how he fought ceaselessly to extricate the self-styled perfect living master from the shadows of death…

How did you feel when the judgement finally came?

Well, I felt relieved. I was not too surprised. You know, because I’ve taken a critical look at the writ of evidence and I was convinced that if it’s a court of law and not a court of public opinion, then I can’t possibly see how a reasonable judge can decide otherwise. But then, you know there’s always the element of uncertainty. Such element is always there. Since I’m not the judge I’ll only anticipate, I cannot be 100% sure, so when it came, it was as I expected. I’ll tell you, it was a serious case – a charge that is punishable by death and if we had lost it would have given me a lot of problems because I would have gone on appeal and all that. It was not something that I was looking forward to, if I had to go on appeal.

So, while the whole thing lasted what went through your mind?

You see, I enjoyed the case. I’m talking professionally now. We were in control. I enjoyed it. It was sensational, controversial. But to me it’s really just a case.

If it was not for the personality of the first accused, to me, all the colour and the mystic attached to Sat Guru Maharaji himself, it’s not even a difficult case. It’s not a difficult case at all. Prosecution was only playing to the gallery and maybe relying on the general opprobrium that society held my client. But I knew that we were at the court of law and there is none of the prosecution witnesses that I handled; there were two lawyers, there was a SAN (Senior Advocate of Nigeria) before me who was debriefed and I took it up.

There was none of the prosecution witnesses who went away unscathed. There was none. We really drilled them. We made them surrender in court by the power of our incisive cross-examination and there was none of my clients – the defence witnesses; they were twelve, none of them performed below par. They were sustained because I had adequate briefing. I went to Ikoyi prisons and Kirikiri- it can’t be less than forty times, to prepare my clients and all that. So all through, of course, there was this hostility from the relatives of the deceased – they are Ghanaians, the Ghana embassy used to come, the Consul used to come and all the rest.

The case itself was fun for me. It was not my first big case. It’s one of the sweetest cases I’ve had. We were even fortunate, but I didn’t start the case. I wasn’t the one who started it.

In fact, if anybody had followed that case, there was no reason for the case because all what the judge now said in the judgement were the points I canvassed when I made a no case submission particularly in respect of the second to the ninth accused persons. Although, the judge himself finally said there were no evidence before this honourable court to prove that accused (second to ninth) used any offensive weapon at all on the deceased.

Then the question is that if it now so holds, why is it that you couldn’t release them on the case of no case submission. The Coroner’s report said that this man died (sic) of a very heavy object. There was no heavy object. The only person who could be said to be holding any object either offensive or defensive, whether static or projectile is Guru himself. Where was the other person, except the eighth accused person, the video camera man who was recording the event and of course for goodness sake, the video camera machine is not an offensive weapon. And at any rate, you can’t be recording and at the same time participating in the beating. Yes, it’s not possible. Yet his lordship in his wisdom decided to say still have a case to answer. And yet, he sits in judgement for forty-five minutes whereas I addressed the court for 5½ hours. 3½ hours on the first day, 2 hours on the second day. And the prosecution counsel spoke for two hours. Then the judgement for just forty-five minutes. That means that our no case submission ought to have been upheld. But you see, maybe the judge was only trying to make sure that not only was justice done, but that justice was seen to be done. But I’m speaking as a lawyer, you see when I canvass that point at a point, it’s legally acceptable, but the duty of the court for goodness sake is to accept it not minding whose ox is gored. The heaven is not going to fall. It has never fallen. So my client had to endure almost four additional months of detention.

At the end of the day like they say in football, a win is a win, whether it is 1-zero or whatever, a win is a win. I was not particularly satisfied with the judgement. If it were a civil case, I would appeal even though we won. I’m not satisfied because when you look at the judgement and all that, it will now look as if my client managed to escape. It’s not that they were thrashed. The prosecution was thrashed.

The police officer who reportedly took the person to the hospital never came to give evidence. The only evidence we had was evidence of hearsay. They said that they took him to the hospital. The doctor who pronounced him dead in the private hospital was never brought to court to testify. The medical report relied on described the man as a patient – not a corpse; not a cadaver, a patient. Even the fourth column in the coroner’s form was blank. You then begin to wonder whether it was not that somebody just bought up this form for somebody to sign. And they could not even tender any photograph of what happened since they knew they were going to make a case in court. You want to make a case against somebody of the personality of Guru, you had a corpse in the mortuary for eight days, police investigated and you could not tender a photograph of the dead man either at the scene of the crime, or when he was being retrieved by the police or when he was placed in the mortuary and you’ve gone to make a case. There was also the problem of identification.

In all, it’s a good case.

Did you ever meet Guru before the case?

No, I never met him. I didn’t lobby for the case, but his devotees came here and later we met for the briefs.

How would you describe him. A lot of people see him differently. How would you describe his relationship with you?

To me, he’s quite an interesting person. He’s gentle. He speaks very well; he’s well-read. I was in his house the other day and I saw a lot of books: Aristotle, philosophy. He studied in Switzerland. I wouldn’t know what happens elsewhere, but I interacted very closely with him; I had direct access. He’s quite respectful. He’s much older, but he gives you respect. He’s not proud. He’s okay. I like him professionally; I appreciate clients who give appreciation for what you are doing for them.

Culturally since he’s older than I am, I also respect him. He’s also generous. He takes advice and he listens.


Post Script:
Court Room Drama
While the reading of the judgement lasted in the hall of court 5 at the Ikeja High Court on Tuesday, July 25, 2000 by Justice James Oduneye, Guru and his devotees stood silently in the dock. But at about 11.25 a.m when the verdict was finally passed, their countenance changed. Although when the judge pronounced them discharged and acquitted they did not jump or shout, they kept cool until he walked into a waiting green Mercedes Benz car with registration number AR 372 LSR. Here, he only muttered to the people who were around, “Thank you very much, e se pupo.”

However,a mild scene was created by some of his devotees in the court premises. When Guru and the others descended the court building’s staircase, two of his devotees who were amongst those anxiously waiting for him brought out a red carpet, for him to walk on, some policemen disallowed them from further carrying on with the act of spreading the carpet. They subsequently folded it and took it back into the car.

But it was visible that the devotees were overjoyed at his release.

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www.squibanticorruption.com