A Chief Magistrate Court in Nasarawa has thrown out and set aside a warrant of arrest and remand against the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of Duport Midstream Company Limited, Dr Akintoye Akindele.
POLITICS NIGERIA reports that the court gave the order on August 23, 2023. This was in the case between Akindele (defendant) and the Inspector General of Police (the complainant) with Suit No: CMC/MG/CR/175/2023.
Akindele had approached the court through his lawyers, Pelumi Olajengbesi and Olalekan Ojo, to challenge the warrants, which he argued were issued without jurisdiction and in suppression of material facts.
The court agreed with Akindele’s arguments and ordered that the warrants be set aside. The court also ordered the police to release Akindele from detention if he was still in custody.
Akindele’s case arose from a business dispute he had with the family of the late MKO Abiola. Akindele has denied all allegations of fraud made against him, and he has said that his business rivals are trying to weave unfound allegations around him through cronies.
The court order was made available to the press by one of the lawyers of the defendant, Pelumi Olajengbesi .
In his comments, Olajengbesi said, “The implication of the court order is to nullify the basis upon which he was arrested in the first place which means that the arrest and search were wrongfully done without proper order from the court.
“The standard in our criminal jurisprudence is investigation before arrest. It is worrisome that the Nigeria Police Force will have to approach a magistrate court in Nasarawa State where the court has no jurisdiction to obtain such a warrant, and after the court said it lacked jurisdiction on the matter and invited the police to defend it, the police failed to show up having recognised their error in the whole unnecessary drama.”
