Counsel seeks Int’l communities’ intervention
By Kayode Adeoti
The agitation for the release of the member representing Kwara South Senatorial district at the upper chamber of the National Assembly, Senator Rafiu Ibrahim, from the police custody, continued as his legal representative, Barr. Muftau Olobi, yesterday, cried out to international communities for help.
Olobi also sought the intervention of well meaning Nigerians to ensure the release of Sen Ibrahim from the hands of those he described as ‘Power that be’.
Since last Thursday, the lawmaker has been in police net at the police headquarters in Ilorin, the Kwara state capital following a political attack on the train of the All Progressives Congress Kwara South Senatorial candidate, Arc. Lola Ashiru in which a life was reportedly lost and eight other persons sustaining wounds in Ojoku(hometown of Sen Ibrahim), Oyun Local Government Area of the state.
Olobi, in a telephone conversation with this medium, last night, stressed that all efforts to secure the lawmaker’s bail since his captivity have yielded no result. According to him, the police have kept on saying the order for Sen. Ibrahim’s detention is ‘from above’.
He said, “I left him at the Police Station around 4:pm today (yesterday) and as I speak to you now, he’s still in detention.”
The worried counsel around 1pm yesterday took to his Facebook timeline to further press for the release of his client who contested for a second term in office under the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Olobi’s Facebook post reads in part; “PDP Kwara Senatorial candidate for 2019 election, serving Senator Ibrahim, received an invitation from the Nigeria Police Force, Ilorin, Kwara State command on the 20th February, 2019 for a supposed chat with him and Architect Lola Ashiru, the APC Senatorial candidate, also for Kwara South.
“The invitation was over the ungodly political carnage that occurred in Ojoku on the eve of his invitation at about 10pm. Sen. Rafiu promptly made himself available to the police authority and the other party never showed up. Rafiu houses were thoroughly ransacked without any incriminating items found. I have been staying with him till late hour since his incarceration and we are told that the order for his predicament is from above.
“Senator Rafiu is still in custody till this moment. We hereby call on Nigerians and International communities to prevail on the so called ‘power that be’ to release Rafiu since he was never scene of the political brawl now was anything linked to him through the suspects or whatsoever.
“They have achieved their objective by intimidation, impunity, lawlessness, overbearing use of power to ensure the opponent has an easy ride in the election,” he wrote.
