Human rights lawyer, Femi Falana, SAN, has declared that the police actions against the father of Prince Adeniyi Adeyemi, the embattled promoter of the alleged Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC), cannot be legally justified.
Speaking during an interview with Arise News on Tuesday, Falana, who is representing the suspect, said that there was no justification for taking the elderly man to a police station.
Falana said he had been informed by police officers in Abuja that Adeyemi’s father was not arrested but was only invited to assist investigators.
“The reported arrest of Mr Adeyemi’s father cannot be justified under the Constitution, under the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, and under the Nigeria Police Act,” Falana said.
The Senior Advocate of Nigeria, however, noted that the Police clarified the situation to him.
“I got a call from the police officers in Abuja this evening, where I was informed that the old man wasn’t really arrested.
“The police merely invited him to take them to a particular place as part of their investigation, and that he was asked to make a statement,” he said.
Falana added that the statement was not taken under caution and that Adeyemi’s father, along with another family member, was allowed to return home after the exercise.
Despite the clarification, the senior lawyer maintained that the police should have obtained the elderly man’s statement at his residence rather than taking him to a police station.
“Whichever way it is, if the police officers involved had wanted the father of Mr Adeyemi to assist them in their investigation, they should have taken his statement in his house and not in a police station. I do hope that this will not repeat itself,” he said.
The comments followed reports that police officers visited the Adeyemi family residence while searching for Prince Adeniyi Adeyemi, who is standing trial before the Federal High Court in Abuja on charges of conspiracy, forgery and impersonation over the alleged PFIPC scandal.
