There was a mild drama at the Yaba Magistrates’ Court in Lagos on Monday as policemen attached to the State Criminal Investigation Department filed an application seeking to remand #EndSARS protester, Eromosele Adene, for an extra 30 days. The Punch reports.
The policemen had last week arrested Eromosele in Ikeja and taken him to the state command headquarters where he was transferred to the Area F Command, Ikeja, before detaining him at the SCID.
He was last Monday flown to Abuja and before being brought back to Lagos on Sunday.
Rather than charge him, the policemen secretly approached a magistrate, O. A. Salau, without informing his lawyer and applied for a remand order to detain him for an extra 30 days.
Eromosele’s lawyer, Mr Tunde Jinadu, who was at the SCID, was told by policemen that his client was no longer in custody.
Jinadu was, however, told by “concerned persons” about what the police were up to.
He said, “We were not served. We were not called that he was being brought to SCID. An ACP told me they didn’t know where he was. This sharp practice by the police needs to stop. That was how they flew him to Abuja last week without my knowledge.
“Some good people informed me that he (Eromosele) had been taken to the magistrates’ court. I was able to meet them at the court.”
On arrival at the court, the policemen were said to have been shocked.
The lawyer added, “The police asked the magistrate for an order to remand him for 30 days despite the fact that he has spent 12 days in their custody.
“We tendered a medical report from Eko Hospital as regards the liver complication and immune system and we made an oral application for bail. And we notified the magistrate that he (Eromosele) had been moved from one detention facility to the other and one state to the other.”
The magistrate subsequently fixed the ruling for Tuesday.
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