Offa Robbery: Court Summons IGP over Continued Detention of Ahmed's Chief of Staff

A Kwara State High Court sitting in Ilorin on Friday summoned the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Mr. Ibrahim Idris, to appear before it on Wednesday next week to justify the continued detention of Lekan Alabi, Personal Assistant to the state Governor Abdulfattah Ahmed, arrested over the April 5, 2018 armed robbery incident in Offa.

Making the order at its sitting yesterday, Justice Adebayo Yusuf said there was nothing in the constitution that allowed the detention of a suspect without trial for a period beyond 24 hours where there is a court or 48 hours in environment where there is no court.

The summon is coming as the lead counsel to Alhaji Babatunde AbdulWahab, the Chief of Staff to the governor, Adelodun Ibrahim, (SAN) has condemned the action of the police authorities for non-release of his client who has been granted bail by another high court in the state over the same robbery incident.

In a short ruling following the application by Adelodun for an interim bail for the suspect pending the determination of the substantive application, the court aligned with the position of the SAN but decided to allow the police another opportunity to defend its position.

“The position of the law is as stated by the learned silk, however I’m inclined to hear from the respondent (IGP) to come to court and show cause why the applicant should not be released from their custody, since they have been served the motion on notice”, the judge said, adding that it is clear that the police cannot change the constitution.

Adelodun had while moving the application pointed out that the detention of the applicant for 60 days without trial is a prima facie case of a breach of his rights to liberty as enshrined in section 35 (7) of the constitution and pointed out that Section 122 of the Evidence Act empowers the court to take judicial notice of the time involved in the exchange of written addresses and affidavit by parties which can compound the suffering of the applicant.

“We are not asking the court to declare our client guilty or innocent at this stage but the police have no right to keep a suspect forever,” he said, citing the decision of the Appeal Court in EFCC vs Akingbola, (2015 NWLR p1470, and pg249, pp290) to buttress his submission.

Adelodun, leading four other lawyers, told newsmen after yesterday’s proceeding that the refusal of the police to obey the court order on AbdulWahab was worrisome as it portend grave danger to the deepening of democracy.

He said that such action might also lead to loss of confidence in the fairness of the police to handle such cases among the populace.