Police Arrest Political Activist, Deji Adeyanju, Again In Abuja

Police Pick Up Activist, Deji Adeyanju Again

The convener of Concerned Nigerians, Deji Adeyanju, has been arrested and detained by the police in Abuja, Naija News has learnt.

According to a source, Ariyo-Dare Atoye, who happens to be a friend to the activist, Adeyanju was arrested around 3:00 p.m. on Thursday.

Report revealed that the police are demanding to establish the conclusion of a murder trial involving Mr Adeyanju in the mid and late 2000s.

“They are holding him at the Inspector-General of Police Monitoring Unit over a murder case from his university days,”

“Even though it is true that he was arrested and charged for murder when he was a student of Bayero University Kano, we are very sure that he was discharged and acquitted in the case,” Mr Atoye said.

The political activist was at the unit, which was specially established to tackle specific serious crimes ranging from kidnapping to armed robbery, to retrieve the last of his three mobile telephone devices which the police seized from him when he was first arrested on November 28.

The Friend to the activist had claimed that he had contacted lawyers as at 9:30 p.m. on behalf of Mr Adeyanju.

“The police said he jumped bail in 2005 and are asking for him to provide the certified true copy of the case in order to establish that he was indeed discharged,” Mr Atoye added. “We find this extremely embarrassing for our country, but we would try and get the copies tomorrow.”

Adeyanju had according to information gathered by Naija News, spent four years in prison between 2005 and 2009 after he was arrested with three others on murder charges while a student of Bayero University.

Festus Keyamo, the current campaign spokesperson of President Muhammadu Buhari presidential campaign, was reported to have defended Mr Adeyanju and the three others involed in the case.

One of the three was Musa Daura, stated to be a relative of Mamman Daura, President Muhammadu Buhari’s nephew.

“I represented Deji Adeyanju in the matter from 2005 until 2009, and I can tell you categorically that he was not only discharged but also acquitted,” Mr Keyamo told Premium Times by telephone on Thursday night.

Mr Keyamo said he represented Mr Adeyanju on a pro-bono (free) basis at the time, buoyed largely by his longstanding interest in helping students from legal dilemma.

“Immediately I heard he was a student, I picked up the case and by the grace of God we won it and he was discharged and acquitted,” Mr Keyamo emphasised.

“I am giving you this information because you told me he had said you should call to verify, I otherwise would never have done it because it falls under the lawyer and client privilege,” 

The Commissioner of police in Abuja, while speaking to Premium Times on Thursday, stated that he was not aware that Mr Adeyanju had been arrested again and was being held at his office.

One of the activists in Concerned Nigerians, Adebayo Raphael, said the plan is to hold his colleague in prison for a long time.

“What they are plotting to do is to take him to Kano and manipulate a judge there to have have him re-arraigned on murder charges, for which he probably would not be granted bail,” Mr Raphael said. “It is an anti-democratic and evil plot but one which we would ensure is defeated.”

Mr Keyamo claimed that he coordinated the trial for Mr Adeyanju and three orders until the matter was completely resolved in 2009, and the federal prosecutors did not file any appeal because they were “satisfied” by the judgment.

Recall that Adeyanju was arrested on November 28 while leading a protest against security agencies getting involved in the upcoming 2019 general elections.

Mr Adeyanju was immediately arraigned in the afternoon of November 28 at the Chief Magistrate’s Court in Karshi, Abuja.

Although he was granted bail on the same day, he was unable to meet the conditions on the spot, and was taken to the federal prisons in Keffi.

On December 3, he fulfilled the bail conditions on the police charges, and was released from prison.

Immediately after his release, the police laid a siege around the prison and re-arrested him again, saying there was a fresh petition from Chief of Army Staff Tukur Buratai.

Mr Buratai’s allegations against Mr Adeyanju were similar to those already filed by the police, but that did not stop them from arraigning him before another magistrate’s court in Wuse Zone 2, Abuja, on December 4.

He was initially remanded for two days on Mr Buratai’s charges, but secured a bail on December 6. He met the conditions on the stop and was allowed to go home for the first time in eight nights.

Following his release on December 6, Mr Adeyanju went days without his mobile telephones.

The police released two out of the three telephones seized from him after about four days, Mr Atoye said.

“He was there to pick up his last telephone today when they held him,” Mr Atoye said.