‘I’m being held illegally, probe me publicly’ – Detained PFIPC DG Adeniyi tells Reps

Adeniyi Adeyemi, the detained Director-General of the controversial Presidential Foreign Investment Promotion Council (PFIPC), has alleged that he is being unlawfully held by the police.

In a statement issued by his lawyer, Prince Ademola Oyedokun, Adeyemi rejected a closed-door appearance before the House of Representatives, insisting that lawmakers should question him during a public hearing.

According to his lawyer, Adeyemi welcomes the House’s investigation into the activities of the Presidential Foreign Investment Promotion Council, stressing that the National Assembly derives its authority from the Nigerian people and has the constitutional responsibility to uncover the truth surrounding the matter.

According to him, Adeyemi had never refused to appear before the Committee, stressing that his client has remained in police custody without being produced before the Committee or any court.

The legal representatives noted that the police told the Committee that Adeyemi Mathew is held pursuant to a court order, but insisted that the order in question, a bench warrant, only authorised his arrest and did not authorise his detention.

“A bench warrant is an order to arrest a man and bring him before the court. It is not an order to detain him.

“The warrant directed the police to arrest our client and to produce him before the Federal High Court. They arrested him.

“They have not produced him. No order committing him to custody has ever been made, served on him or shown to him, and none could have been made, because he has never been brought before any court”, he said.

He further stated that an application for his client’s production and release was already before the appropriate court.

The lawyer called on the committee to reconsider its plan to interview Adeyemi at an undisclosed date and place.

According to him, since the allegations against his client were made in public, his responses should also be heard in public.

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