The governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party in Ogun State, Ladi Adebutu, on Wednesday, reported at the state police headquarters in Eleweran, Abeokuta, over allegations of vote-buying during the March 18 elections.
Adebutu has just returned to Nigeria after over six months in the United Kingdom.
He arrived at the police headquarters around 11 am to honour a police invite over allegations by the All Progressives Congress that he bought votes with preloaded ATM cards during the polls.
The Chairman of the APC in Ogun, Yemi Sanusi, had petitioned the police, accusing Adebutu and other PDP members of vote-buying.
The case is now in court.
During his long stay outside the country, the APC spokesperson in the state, Tunde Oladunjoye, said Adebutu was running away from the law, even as he challenged him to return home and face the allegations against him.
“He is afraid of his shadow. We also know too well that he is running away from being arraigned alongside other members of his party. If he claims otherwise, the best way to prove us wrong is to buy a ticket and board the next available flight home,” Oladunjoye said in a recent interview.
As the governorship candidate returned over the weekend, the APC, in another statement on Tuesday, welcomed him back home, asking him to turn himself in to the authorities and defend the vote-buying and money laundering charges preferred against him by the Federal Government.
In a statement by its Assistant Publicity Secretary, Olusola Blessed, the APC said, “If it is indeed true that Adebutu has returned to the country after being away from the long arm of the law since April this year on the pretext of medical vacation, we welcome him back to his fatherland.
“We also urge him to turn himself into the authorities and defend the allegations of vote-buying and money laundering levelled against him during the 18th March 2023 governorship and House of Assembly elections for which some members and agents of his party have already been charged to court.”
Adebutu was led into the State Criminal Investigation Department, after meeting the Commissioner of Police, Abiodun Alamutu, alongside his legal team and other loyalists.
