The Ogun state police command has said that the family of 16-year-old Melojuekun Barakat who accused Ogun state commissioner for environment, Abiodun Abudu-Balogun of sexually harassing her can’t stop the investigation.
This is coming after the family of the victim announced that they were withdrawing the allegation against the suspended commissioner.
However the Ogun state police spokesperson, Abimbola Oyeyemi told newsmen that the victim’s father cannot stop the investigation and charges against the commissioner as he is not the one directly involved in the case.
Oyeyemi argued that the offence was committed against the state and the position of the family is “immaterial”.
Oyeyemi said;
“The father of the victim has no loco standi for him to tell the police that he’s no longer pressing charges against the commissioner because he is not our complainant.
“He is not the person that was directly involved in the case.
The victim is his daughter and even the daughter herself cannot withdraw the case because she is underage.
“Secondly, the case is an offence committed against the state, so they are no longer complainants, it is the commissioner of police versus the suspect.
“They are just witnesses in the case. So the police are going on with investigations to confirm the authenticity of the claims.
“The CP has directed that the case should be transferred to the State CID for proper investigations, so their position is immaterial.
“We cannot conclude that the case will be charged to court until when we confirm that the offence was actually committed.
If the offence was actually committed, we will not hesitate to charge it court and see the case to a logical conclusion.”
