Detained Senator Ademola Adeleke To Be Arraigned In Abuja Today

The 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.”

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