Molly Kilete and Ndubuisi Orji, Abuja
Senator Ademola Adeleke has been arrested by the police in Abuja and currently in custody.
The senator, who was arraigned in a Federal High Court in Abuja, where he was granted permission to travel to the United States on health grounds was taken into custody at about 5pm yesterday.
Daily Sun gathered that the senator was taken to Maitama police station.
A police source, that does not want to be mentioned in print, told Daily Sun: “Yes, he is in police custody. They just brought him today at about 5pm; it is not even up to one hour that they brought him.
“I cannot say weather or not he was brought in from the court but all I can say is that weather he was brought in from the court or not, he is not above the law and it is still within the period of 24 hours. They just brought him, it’s not up to one hour.”
“But I want to believe it is not from the court because if it was from the court they would have taken him directly to prison.”
A Federal High Court in Abuja headed by Justice Inyang Ekwo had granted Adeleke permission to travel to the United States (US) on medical grounds.
The judge also restrained the police from preventing Adeleke, who is being tried with some others on charges relating to examination fraud, from engaging in the foreign trip.
The judge said in an enrolled order: “An order of this honorable court is hereby made directing the deputy chief registrar of this honourable court to release to the 1st defendant/applicant his international passport to enable him travel to the United States of America on 7th day of May of 2019 and return on the 9th day of June, 2019, to enable him undergo urgent medical check-up.”
Ekwo gave the permission while ruling on Friday on a motion ex-parte filed by the senator. Meanwhile, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has protested the detention of Adeleke by the police in Abuja.
The PDP National Publicity Secretary, at a press briefing, yesterday said the detention is against the extant order of an Osun High Court, which barred the police from arresting the governorship candidate, pending the determination of the substantive suit.
Ologbondiyan, while demanding for the immediate release of Adeleke, stated that his arrest is a recipe for crisis and anarchy in Osun State.
Daily Sun gathered that the embattled senator had responded to the invitation of the police in compliance of the court order, which directed him to honour the invitation of the latter yesterday, while at the same ordering the police not prevent him from traveling abroad for medical care.
The opposition spokesman noted that it is provocative for the police to detain Adeleke, in total disregard for the court order.
According to him, “the arrest and detention of 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 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 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 police arrested Adeleke 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.
“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 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. “
Ologbondiyan stated that the calculation of the APC is to ensure that 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. “