After weeks of insinuations that he may have run foul of the law during the March 18, 2023 gubernatorial elections, a report submitted by the Nigeria Police Force during the week indicted the governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Ogun State, Hon. Ladi Adebutu. This piece examines the ongoing travails of the Remo-born politician.

Following weeks of investigating some suspects alleged to have breached the electoral law during the 2023 general elections in Ogun State, the Nigeria Police Force may have resolved that the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the last governorship election in the state, Hon. Ladi Adebutu, should face trial over allegations that he, along with others, breached the country’s electoral and financial laws. Already, it is being alleged that Adebutu is now on the run in his bid to evade the long arm of the law.

Checks revealed that the police are also seeking the investigation and possible trial of a bank and a technology firm for suspected to have conspired and abetted some criminal activities before and during the last governorship election. According to the state police command, preliminary investigation and inquiry revealed that some people were given tier-one bank’s prepaid verve ATM cards, loaded with N10, 000 each to induce electorate to vote for the PDP candidate as governor in the 2023 gubernatorial election.

It was also gathered that Adebutu is now being accused of printing a total of 200,000 ATM cards in the name of an endowment scheme which was distributed during the governorship election to allegedly induce voters. In the opinion of the Police, the 200,000 cards with a total sum of about N2 billion meant to serve as bribe and or vote buying. To some observers of the politics of the state, Adebutu, who is currently challenging the victory of Governor Dapo Abiodun at the March 18 governorship election, may find it hard to explain the allegations away.

Indicted

The Police, in its report submitted to the Attorney-General of the Federation and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), reportedly indicted Adebutu, for money laundering and vote-buying. According to reliable Police sources, it is expected that INEC and the AGF will examine the report and decide what to do with it. “It is for INEC and AGF to decide how to go about prosecuting the suspects. We have done what is expected of us at this stage. If they decide so, we can do further investigations to strengthen the cases,” he said.

It was also gathered that the PDP gubernatorial candidate, who has been invited severally by the Police for questioning, failed to present himself before the investigators till the report was submitted. “We wrote to him. We sent emissaries to him and we even visited his known addresses all to no avail. He is yet to honour any of our invitations. At a point a law firm claiming to be acting on his instructions, informed the team of investigators that he is receiving medical treatment abroad. ” a source said.

Trouble started for the PDP candidate when a petition dated 18 March, 2023 and addressed to the Inspector-General of Police, Usman Baba, he was accused of distributing ATM cards preloaded with N10, 000 to induce voters on election day. Following the petition, the police said its officers and officials of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) arrested five suspects with hundreds of the credit cards branded in the name of his late mother, ‘Dame Caroline Oladunni Adebutu Endowment Scheme, on the election day.

Adebutu, who lost the governorship election to incumbent governor, Abiodun, will have to prove his innocence before the court if the recommendation of the Police is acted upon by the concerned agencies. He polled 262, 383 votes to emerge runners-up behind Abiodun of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), who polled 276, 298 votes. His supporters however insist he won the election and was manipulated out by the ruling party. His lawyers are currently battling to prove this assertion before the Tribunal.

Following the report submitted by the Nigerian Police Force, a civil society organization, Committee for the Protection of Peoples Mandate (CPPM) has called for an international warrant of arrest on Adebutu for alleged violation of Nigeria’s Electoral Act and for ignoring police invitation. In a press statement issued on Wednesday and signed by its Executive Director, Nelson Ekujumi, the group said it has followed with keen interest the police investigation of Adebutu’s incontrovertible vote buying scam during the Ogun State gubernatorial election.

CPPM alleged that voters were induced with a pre loaded ATM card with the inscription Dame Caroline Scheme to the tune of ten thousand naira (N10, 000) to vote for Adebutu, which amounted to a violation of Nigeria’s Electoral Act (2022) as amended. Ekujumi said CPPM physically witnessed this flagrant violation of the electoral Act by Adebutu and his party from the reports of its deployed observers as well as through complaints by some voters who felt that they were deceived to vote and collect ten thousand naira when some of the pre loaded ATM cards could not be redeemed.

“This anomaly and electoral Act violation is contained in CPPM observation report and has now been corroborated by the interim report of the Nigeria Police investigation of this crime against the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. This case must be pursued to a logical conclusion to serve as a deterrent to politicians and sanitize our democracy,” the statement added.

The civil society organization noted that the report of the Nigeria Police investigation with regards to the inducement of voters with the pre loaded ATM cards with the inscription Dame Caroline Scheme and provision of POS terminals within the vicinity of polling stations in Ogun State on election day to redeem the ten thousand naira vote buying money is public knowledge and verifiable.

The organisation used the occasion of the press statement to commend the security agencies for this painstaking and thorough report and for the arrest of some of the perpetrators of this violations of the Electoral Act on election day for which their statements and exhibits were used as part of the investigation to establish that the PDP gubernatorial candidate, Adebutu, who they claim is now on the run, has a case to answer. “We call on the Nigeria Police to interface with Interpol to issue an international warrant of arrest on Adebutu, who is trying to deflect from his alleged violation of the electoral Act by fleeing the country under the guise of his life being under threat which is a ruse,” CPPM said.

Many troubles

But Adebutu has denied being on the run as a result of the Police report, saying he has instead gone into hiding after an alleged threat to his life. In a recent interview the PDP chieftain claimed he was speaking from somewhere outside Nigeria. He did not disclose his exact location. According to him, he started sensing that something is amiss when the State Security Service (SSS) withdrew its officers attached to him and the police reduced their own.

The PDP gubernatorial candidate added that since approaching the tribunal to challenge the outcome of the March 18 governorship election in Ogun State, he has had an admixture of persuasion and subtle threats to force him to withdraw the petition. He added that he was in possession of credible intelligence that attempts were being made to kidnap him before the determination of his petition. “God will not allow their evil plans for us to materialize. That is why I have decided to proceed on self-exile for my own safety,” he emphasized.

But reacting to the PDP candidate’s claim on his whereabouts, the Publicity Secretary of Ogun State chapter of the APC, Tunde Oladunjoye, described Adebutu, as “a clown who is only being pursued by creditors, his ego and failed ambition”. Oladunjoye said, “We do not want to believe that someone who had dreamt of being the governor of a state like Ogun is oblivious of the fact that it is a normal practice to downsize security details after elections, except you are a President, Vice- President, Governor and others.

“Perhaps, he wants to continue to hold on to security operatives paid by tax payers’ money as he did on the day of the last governorship election, when he was moving from Ogun East senatorial district to the others, in breach of the Electoral laws and guidelines. Our advice to Adebutu is that ‘promise is a debt until it is paid’, he should pay without further delay, his sundry creditors, agents, officials and contractors, and stop muck-racking in a vainglorious attempt to cover his misdeeds.”

“It would be recalled that recently, a letter of appointment by PDP/Adebutu to one of his lackeys went viral. The latest is his funny request for security cover equivalent to that of an elected state governor! Adebutu should just stop all these hallucinations and be prepared to face the laws of the land on what he and his ramshackle party perpetrated during the last elections. He can only run, but cannot hide forever from the long arms of the law”, he said.

Meanwhile, Adebutu’s spokesperson Afolabi Orekoya denied all allegations against his principal and concluded that the PDP chief is innocent. “It should be noted by members of the public that this purported ‘interim report’ of an investigation, which the APC also alluded to, which has not been concluded, is being pre-empted by them. It is, therefore, glaring that the effort of Mr. Abiodun and his party to act as whistleblowers for the police is a deliberate and mischievous attempt to blackmail our principal.

“We hereby call on the police authorities to open an investigation into how ‘explicit’ details of the interim report of an uncompleted investigation were leaked to the press, even though the petition leading to this investigation is laced with a political undertone,” he said. (The Nation)

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