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PDP Kicks as Police Arrest, Detain Adeleke
The Peoples Democratic Party has protested against the detention of its candidate for last year’s Osun State governorship election, Ademola Adeleke, by the police on Monday.
Adeleke was detained at Force Headquarters in Abuja after he was invited by the police
“This is highly provocative, an invitation to anarchy and a recipe for a very serious crisis not only in Osun but also in the judiciary and our nation,” the PDP National Publicity Secretary,Ologbindiyan, said at a press conference in Abuja on Monday.
“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 to coerce Senator Adeleke into relinquishing the mandate that was freely given to him by the people of Osun State, which was further established by the tribunal.”
Ologbondiyan said the plot was to arraign Adeleke before “an ostensibly compromised magistrate’s court” over the same issues of alleged examination malpractice and certificate forgery before the Federal High Court, Abuja.
He said, “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 Supreme Court.
“The police arrested him in the guise of an invitation despite the direct orders of the Federal High Court restraining them or their agents from arresting and detaining him on account of the 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 argued that arraigning Adeleke in a magistrate’s court for a matter already being heard by the Federal High Court was aimed at causing a crisis in the judiciary.
The party said, “The PDP therefore demands the immediate and unconditional release of Senator Adeleke by the police.”
The police said the lawmaker would be arraigned on Tuesday for unstated criminal offences.
Force spokesman, DCP Frank Mba, confirmed to one of our correspondents that they had taken Adeleke into custody.
He stated, “Senator Adeleke is currently in police custody. He was taken into custody in the evening (Monday) in connection with ongoing criminal investigations touching on his person.”
Meanwhile, the Federal High Court in Abuja had granted Adeleke permission to travel to the United States for a checkup on Tuesday.
Justice Inyang Ekwo however ordered him to honour a fresh police invitation on May 6 (Monday), before travelling the next day.
In his ruling delivered on Friday, but which its enrolled order was seen by The PUNCH on Monday, the court specifically directed the police not to prevent Adeleke from travelling on May 7.
The judge ordered him to return to the country on June 9.
Adeleke’s passport was seized by the court last year as the bail condition granted him, following his arraignment.
The judge ordered the Chief Registrar of the court to release the passport to him to enable him to embark on the foreign trip.
Justice Ekwo also ordered Adeleke to return the passport to the Chief Registrar within three days of his arrival in Nigeria on June 9.
He delivered his ruling after hearing Adeleke’s lawyer, Dr Alex Iziyon (SAN), and the prosecuting counsel, Simon Lough, on Friday.
After Adeleke applied for the release of his passport, the police opposed the application on the ground that there was a fresh petition against him.
The petition was said to have been filed after the senator had filed his application before the court.
Others standing trial before the court alongside Adeleke are Sikiru Adeleke, the Principal of Ojo-Aro Community Grammar School, Alhaji Aregbesola Muftau, Registrar of the school, Gbadamosi Ojo, and a teacher in the school, Dare Olutope.
The prosecution accused the five defendants of committing the offence of examination malpractices by fraudulently, through impersonation, registering Adeleke and another Sikiru Adeleke, as pupils of Ojo-Aro Community Grammar School for the National Examination Council’s June/July 2017 Senior School Certificate Examination in February 2017.
The Swedish Prosecution Authority announced today that the inquiry into rape allegations against French footballer Kylian Mbappé has been closed due to a lack of sufficient evidence to proceed.
This is according to multiple reports on Thursday morning.
The allegations had drawn international attention, casting a shadow over the football star’s career.
Mbappé, who had consistently denied the allegations, has yet to make an official statement regarding the decision
His legal team had previously emphasised his commitment to due process.
Mbappe was “linked to rape investigation in Sweden” and that he intended to reserve any explanations for the Swedish justice system “if necessary,” according to his lawyer, Marie-Alix Canu-Bernard.
“He prioritises providing his explanations, if required, to the Swedish judiciary,” Canu-Bernard told AFP, while strongly condemning “media allegations suggesting that Kylian Mbappé had commented on the events of his trip to Stockholm.”
The case, which began earlier this year, involved accusations stemming from an alleged incident in Stockholm. The prosecutor’s decision not to press charges marks the end of months of scrutiny and speculation.
The leader of the United Kingdom’s Conservative Party, Kemi Badenoch, has lashed back at Vice President Kashim Shettima over the latter’s reaction to her comments about Nigeria.
Badenoch was born in the UK in 1980 to Nigerian Yoruba parents.
Badenoch, who attained age 16 in Nigeria before departing the country for the UK where she was elected Conservative Party’s leader, described Nigeria as a nation brimming with thieving politicians and insecurity.
However, Shettima, while speaking at the 10th Annual Migration Dialogue at the Presidential Villa in Abuja on Monday, December 9, 2024, accused Badenoch of “denigrating her country of origin” with her remarks.
The vice-president listed influential people whose families had migrated to other countries, commending former UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak as a “brilliant young man who never denigrated his nation of ancestry.”
Reacting on Wednesday, Badenoch lashed back at Shettima, saying she doesn’t do “PR for Nigeria”.
Her spokesperson, as the Tory leader, according to UK Express, said: “Kemi is not interested in doing Nigeria’s PR; she is the Leader of the Opposition in the UK.
“She tells the truth; she tells it like it is; she isn’t going to couch her words. She stands by what she said.”
A former Deputy National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Bode George, has urged President Bola Tinubu to reduce the price of petrol to N300 per litre, noting that it would enable Nigerians to celebrate the festive season.
He also said the party will overcome its current challenges before the 2027 elections, noting that the ambition of an individual should not be higher than the party’s interest.
Speaking on the need for a reduction in petrol price at a press conference in Lagos, the PDP leader said the reduction should commence immediately.
George said: “What am I suggesting is that by the 15th or the middle of this month, President Tinubu, if he really believes that these Nigerians voted him into power, it is time to give back to them.
“There are two months in any calendar year that are very important months. Whether you are a Christian, a Muslim, an atheist, or a traditionalist, it is common and it is all over the world. The months of December and January are the most important months.
“From the middle of December, at least to the end of January, the cost of petrol should be reduced to N300 per litre. The government can absorb the losses.
“With this, you will be sending a lot of messages of happiness across the tribes and homes. Everybody in Nigeria will be happy because it will positively impact this period of the year.
“It is a challenge and he can do it. If Madam First Lady could donate N1 billion to a university, she could also donate into the coffers to bear this cost. What’s wrong? So that everybody will be able to sleep well with N300 per litre across the board.
“So by the end of January, in the meantime, the prayers, the happiness, the impact of that will drive people up. And the Almighty God will answer our prayers. We need this in this December and January to put a smile on the faces of people.
“Who is the Minister of Petroleum? So he has a singular effort and if he really looks at these cuts in fuel price across all political parties, all human beings, all Nigerians, he will see the joy in them because the cost of items will crash.”
He said there is no organization anywhere in the world that is not riddled with crisis.
He said this at an interactive session in Lagos.
“I call our party (PDP) the Iroko because the party didn’t emerge from anywhere. It is entrenched in our constitution. Section 7 (3c), of the PDP constitution states that there will be and there must be and there shall be zoning and rotation of party positions and elective offices.
“Everything that had been in the South must go to the North. Everything that is in the North must come to the South. So that was what drove some of us because this is justice, equity, and fairness.
“That’s what made some of us say, I will join politics. We were the first to be elected in 1999. The first were appointed the managers.
“They handed over to us these procedures and these doctrines, so suddenly human manipulation came because someone wants to be president.
“So your ambition is now higher than the corporate ambition of everybody. Who the hell are you? And because it’s been going from generation to generation, I’m happy I’m still alive. We can talk about it.
“What they handed over to us, we are telling them, this is what they handed over that made the party to be stable. We will tell ourselves some serious old truths. We messed up ourselves with the manipulation. It started with Ayu,” the party chieftain added.
