The governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Ogun State, Ladi Adebutu, has denied allegations of vote-buying, accusing the police of staging a media trial.
Adebutu, in a statement on Thursday, said he has not been served any court notice to prove that he has been charged to court by the Office of the Attorney General of the Federation.
He accused Inspector General of Police Usman Alkali Baba of joining the All Progressives Congress (APC) to subvert the decision of the Ogun State Election Petition Tribunal.
In a statement made available to DAILY POST by his media aide, Afolabi Orekoya, Adebutu revealed that the police are “covering up investigation into allegations of vote buying and electoral violence against the APC during the March 18 governorship election.”
According to him, PDP had since sent a petition to the police boss six weeks ago, asking him to investigate APC for “vote buying, electoral violence, and voter intimidation.”
He accused the APC of using the police to subvert justice by intimidating and harassing him, despite spending N3 billion to induce voters and disrupt elections in many parts of the state.
“We have petitioned the police for the past six weeks, but we are surprised the police have not opened up an investigation into our petition against the APC on the votes bought by them,” Adebutu stated.
He appealed to the IGP to “allow this petition to see the light of the day,” saying they should not suppress it.”
On the case against him at the High Court over alleged voting buying, Adebutu stated that he was neither invited by the police nor served with any court papers, saying he only learnt about it in the media.
The governorship candidate described the suit as “an abuse of court process and a plot to distract the tribunal from doing its job.”
In a statement on Thursday, the Ogun APC had told Adebutu to surrender himself to the police over the allegations against him.
But the PDP leader denied claims that he left the country to evade police arrest, saying he travelled on April 25 for his usual routine medical check-up after the election.
He advised APC to face the petition against it at the tribunal instead of chasing shadows and trying to divert people’s attention.
