Osun State candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in last
year’s governorship election, Senator Ademola Adeleke, will be arraigned
today in Abuja, the police said last night.
According to Force
spokesman Frank Mba, a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DCP), the
senator was arrested and being detained in connection with ongoing
criminal investigations touching on his person.
He, however,
declined to give the exact charges against Adeleke. A police source
told The Nation last night that the senator will be
arraigned for forgery.
A statement by Mba reads: “Senator
Adeleke is currently in police custody. He was taken into custody in the
evening of today yesterday (6th, May, 2019, in connection with ongoing
criminal investigations touching on his person.
“Meanwhile, in
the best tradition of natural justice and fair hearing, he has already
been served with the relevant charge sheet containing his alleged
offences in the presence of his attorneys.
“He will be arraigned in a competent court of law tomorrow, 7th May, 2019.”
But the PDP yesterday alleged plots to poison the senator.
According
to it, Adeleke was arrested and detained by the police yesterday
evening, in what the party described “total disregard for the extant
order of the Federal High Court.”
At a news conference in Abuja,
PDP spokesman Kola Ologbondiyan, described the senator’s arrest and
detention as highly provocative, an invitation to anarchy and recipe for
a very serious crisis not only in Osun but also in the judiciary and
the nation as a whole.
The statement said: “The arrest and
detention of senator Adeleke is a direct act of violence against our
laws, the institution of the judiciary and the 1999 Constitution (as
amended).
“This is part of the grand plot by the All Progressives
Congress (APC) to coerce Senator Adeleke to relinquish the mandate that
was freely given to him by the people of Osun state, which was further
established by the election petition tribunal.
“The plot is to
drag Senator Adeleke before an ostensibly compromised magistrate court,
over the same issues of alleged forged school testimonial that is
already before the Federal High Court, with a view to using such
corridor to secure a stampeded trial and hurried conviction, and put him
out of circulation, over trump-up charges.
“The heinous
calculation by the APC is to ensure that Senator Adeleke is not free to
be sworn in as governor of Osun state as they know he will surely obtain
justice and retrieve his stolen mandate at the Court of Appeal and the
Supreme Court.
“The police arrested Senator Ademola on the guise
of an invitation despite the direct orders of the Federal High Court,
restraining it or its agents from arresting and detaining him on account
of statement of result and testimonial duly issued by the Ede Muslim
Grammar School, Ede, pending the determination of the originating
summons pending in the court.
“Senator Adeleke, as a law-abiding
citizen, honoured an invitation by the police only for him to be
arrested and detained in a dingy facility in Maitama, in direct affront
to the order of the Federal High Court.
“The PDP holds that any
arraignment of Senator Adeleke in a magistrate court, for a matter that
is already being heard by the Federal High Court, is a calculated plot
to cause crisis in the judicial system, enmesh the matter in unnecessary
controversy as a pathway to truncate the course of justice in his
matter.
“The PDP therefore demands forthwith, the immediate and
unconditional release of Senator Adeleke by the police. This demand is
predicated on fears already in the public space that there are plots by
certain elements to poison him in detention.”