An Osun State High Court sitting in Ede has ordered that Alfred Aderibigbe, the nurse who administered the drugs which allegedly killed Senator Isiaka Adeleke, be remanded in custody.
According to a statement on Sunday by the Press Officer, Osun State Ministry of Justice, Opeyemi Bello, the nurse, who was arraigned on murder before Justice Ayo Oyebiyi on Friday pleaded not guilty to the charge preferred against him.
Counsel for the accused, Soji Oyetayo, prayed the court to admit Aderibigbe to bail.
He told the court that there was an application submitted to the court for his client’s bail.
The Acting Solicitor General and Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Justice, Dapo Adeniji, who led the legal team from the ministry, opposed the bail application, arguing that the accused was being arraigned for the first time in the court, while the bail application was filed before the arraignment.
He said, “The bail application is premature because the accused was not in custody when the application was filed.”
The presiding judge, Justice Ayo Oyebiyi, in his ruling ordered that the accused should be remanded at the Ilesa Prison till June 29, 2018 when the case would come up for hearing.
Adeleke, a serving senator, died on April 23, 2017, after he was treated by the nurse.
His death sparked a riot with the insinuation from his supporters that he was poisoned because of his governorship ambition.
The state government instituted a coroner’s inquest to probe the cause of the death and the nurse was indicted by a magistrate, Mr Olusegun Ayilara, who recommended him for trial.
The Chief Medical Director of the Ladoke Akintola University Teaching Hospital, Osogbo, Prof. Akeem Lasisi, who testified before the panel had said Adeleke died of drug overdose.
The Consultant Pathologist at LAUTH who carried out the autopsy on Adeleke’s corpse, Dr Taiwo Sholaja, also told the coroner’s inquest that Adeleke died of drug overdose and not poison.