An Osun State High Court sitting in Ede as ordered that Mr Alfred Aderibigbe, the nurse who administered drugs which allegedly led to the demise of Senator Isiaka Adeleke be remanded in prison custody.
According to a statement made available by the Mr Opeyemi Bello, Press Officer Osun State Ministry of Justice, Aderibigbe, who was arraigned for murder before Justice Ayo Oyebiyi on Friday pled ‘not guilty’ to the charge preferred against him.
Counsel to the accused person, Mr Soji Oyetayo, prayed the court to grant his client bail. Oyetayo told the court that there was an application filed for the bail of Aderibigbe, but the Acting Solicitor General and Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Justice, Dapo Adeniji, who led the prosecution opposed the bail application.
Adeniji argued that the accused was just being arraigned for the first time in the court and the bail application was filed before the arraignment.
The presiding judge, Justice Ayo Oyebiri, 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.
Late Senator Adeleke, a then serving senator, died on April 23, 2017, after being treated by the nurse. The state government commenced a coroner’s inquest to probe the cause of the death.
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.