A nurse, identified as Alfred Aderibigbe, who treated late Senator Isiaka Adeleke shortly before he died on April 23, 2017, has been remanded in prison custody. The order for the remand was given by an Osun State High Court, sitting in Ede, on Friday.
A press statement by the Information Officer of the Osun State Ministry of Justice, Opeyemi Bello, on Sunday revealed this. The statement said Aderibigbe pleaded not guilty to one count of murder preferred against him. His defence counsel, Barrister Soji Oyetayo, informed the court of a bail application already filed before the court on behalf of his client.
But the acting Solicitor General and Permanent Secretary, Osun State Ministry of Justice, Dapo Adeniji, opposed the bail application, describing it as premature. Adeniji said the accused was not in custody when the application was filed.
Presiding Justice Ayo Adebiyi ordered that Aderibigbe be remanded at Ilesa prison till June 29 when the case would come up for hearing.
Aderibigbe was indicted last year by a coroner inquest instituted by Governor Rauf Aregbesola of Osun State to investigate the circumstances and cause of Adeleke’s death.
The coroner, headed by Magistrate Olusegun Ayilara, had found the nurse culpable for allegedly administering an overdose of analgesic tablets and intravenous injections on the representative of Osun West Senatorial District. Ayilara recommended Aderibigbe for prosecution, having established that he administered drug overdose on the senator, thus culminating in his death.
During his cross-examination, he had argued that the drugs administered on Adeleke were given to him by the deceased.
Testifying before the coroner, the consultant pathologist, who carried out an autopsy on Adeleke, said his death was as a result drug overdose.
