TheCable

A federal high court in Jos, Plateau state has vacated its order restraining the police from arresting Jide Awe, the chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ekiti state.

Awe and four other members of APC are wanted by the police for alleged involvement in the murder of Ayo Jeje and Juliana Adewumi in the Erinjiyan-Ekiti part of the state on March 31, 2013.

The suspects had approached the federal high court, with an exparte motion, seeking an order restraining the police from arresting them.

In a motion before Lewis-Allagoa, a justice, the plaintiffs urged the court to declare as unconstitutional, their threatened arrest, detention and arraignment.

They argued that the offence for which they were being targeted for re-arrest had been heard by a court and the case dismissed.

Allagoa had granted all the reliefs sought by the applicants and the matter was adjourned to December 3, 2014.

However, when the matter came up on Wednesday, Abayomi Sadiku, counsel to the inspector general of police, the commissioners of police in Plateau and Ekiti urged the court to vacate the restraining order granted on November 24, 2014.

Allagoa subsequently vacated the order, saying his earlier restraint on the police not to arrest Awe, was for a limited time.

“Nobody can tie the hands of the police from performing their constitutional duties,” Allagoa ruled.