The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has demanded the immediate release of its Osun State governorship candidate, Senator Ademola Adeleke, whose detention it described as “a direct act of violence against the laws of the land and the institution of the judiciary.”
Adeleke was detained on Monday by the police at the Force headquarters, Abuja after honouring an order of an Abuja High Court to present himself to the police before travelling out of the country for medical treatment.
A statement signed by the National Publicity Secretary of PDP, Kola Ologbondiyan and made available to the Next Edition said the action of the police was “highly provocative, an invitation to anarchy and recipe for a very serious crisis not only in Osun but also in the judiciary and in the polity as a nation.”
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The statement read further: “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 stated that any arraignment of Senator Adeleke at a magistrate court, for a matter that was already being heard by the Federal High Court, was “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.”
It therefore demanded forthwith, the immediate and unconditional release of Senator Adeleke by the police.
This demand, the party said, was predicated on fears already in the public space that there were plots by certain elements to poison him in detention.
The PDP therefore cautioned those playing the script of the APC with regard to Senator Adeleke to retrace their steps and allow the people of Osun state to move ahead with their preferred governor. “Nothing, not even these heinous plots, will subvert this reality,” the party added.
