Detained Director-General of the controversial Presidential Foreign Investment Promotion Council (PFIPC), Adeniyi Adeyemi, has accused the Nigeria Police Force of unlawfully detaining him, insisting that he should be questioned in a public hearing by the House of Representatives rather than behind closed doors.
The claim was made in a statement issued by his lawyer, Prince Ademola Oyedokun, who described the continued detention of his client as illegal and urged the House Committee investigating the PFIPC to allow Adeyemi defend himself openly.
Oyedokun said Adeyemi welcomed the National Assembly’s investigation into the council and acknowledged the House of Representatives’ constitutional mandate to establish the facts surrounding the matter.
He rejected claims that his client had refused to honour the committee’s invitation, stating that Adeyemi has remained in police custody and has not been produced before either the House committee or any court.
According to the lawyer, the police informed the committee that Adeyemi was being held based on a court order. However, he argued that the order in question was only a bench warrant authorising his arrest and not his continued detention.
“A bench warrant is an order to arrest a man and bring him before the court. It is not an order to detain him,” Oyedokun said.
“The warrant directed the police to arrest our client and produce him before the Federal High Court. They arrested him but have not produced him. No order committing him to custody has ever been made, served on him, or shown to him. None could have been made because he has never been brought before any court.”
He disclosed that an application seeking Adeyemi’s production in court and release from custody had already been filed before the appropriate court.
Oyedokun also urged the House committee to reconsider plans to question his client at an undisclosed venue and date, insisting that since the allegations against Adeyemi were made publicly, his defence should also be heard in an open session.
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