An Osun State High Court sitting in Ede has ordered that Alfred Aderibigbe, the nurse who administered the drugs which allegedly killed Senator Isiaka Adeleke, be remanded in prison custody.
According to a statement by the Press Officer, Osun State Ministry of Justice, Opeyemi Bello, the nurse, who was arraigned on murder before Justice Ayo Oyebiyi on Friday pleaded not guilty to the charge preferred against him.
Counsel for the accused, Soji Oyetayo prayed the court to admit Aderibigbe to bail but the Acting Solicitor General and Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Justice, Dapo Adeniji, who led the legal team from the ministry, opposed the bail application.
Adeniji argued that the accused was being arraigned for the first time in the court, while the bail application was filed before the arraignment. The presiding judge, Justice Ayo Oyebiyi, 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 serving senator, died on April 23, 2017, after he was treated by the nurse. The state government instituted a coroner’s inquest to probe the cause of the death and the nurse was indicted by a magistrate, Olusegun Ayilara, who recommended him for trial.
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.
