The governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party in Ogun State, Ladi Adebutu, on Wednesday, visited the state police headquarters in Eleweran, Abeokuta, over allegations of vote-buying during the March 18 elections.
Adebutu, who had returned to Nigeria after spending more than six months in the United Kingdom, arrived at the police headquarters at 11 a.m. to honour a police summons on charges by the All Progressives Congress that he bought votes using preloaded ATM cards during the election.
Yemi Sanusi, the APC Chairman in Ogun, had petitioned the police, charging Adebutu and other PDP members of vote-buying.
The lawsuit is currently 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 with The PUNCH.
As the governorship candidate returned over the weekend, the APC, in another statement on Tuesday, welcomed him back home, asking him to turn himself into 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/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.