₦airaland Forum

Police release Naira Marley, ex-gov candidate, wife on bail
• Partygoers to be arraigned today

The Lagos State Police Command has released on bail the governorship candidate of the Action Democratic Party in the state in the 2019 gubernatorial election, Babatunde Gbadamosi, and his wife.

The couple were released on Tuesday alongside a musician, Azeez Fashola, aka Naira Marley, after they perfected their bail conditions.

The trio had on Monday turned themselves in at the State Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department, Panti, Yaba, and were detained after the police asked them and others, who attended a birthday party organised by a popular actress, Funke Akindele-Bello, aka Jenifa, to report at the SCIID.

The party was organised by Funke for her musician husband, Abdul Rasheed Bello, alias JJC Skillz, at their residence on the Amen Estate in the Ibeju-Lekki area of the state.

More than 20 persons were in attendance at the party in contravention of the state government’s social distancing directive to limit the spread of the coronavirus.

The celebrity couple were arraigned by the state government on Monday and were sentenced to 14 days of community service and also fined N100,000 each by Mrs Aje Afunwa of the Lagos State Magistrates’ Court in Ogba.

The magistrate, who also ordered that they should be placed in isolation, added that they must compile and submit the names and phone numbers of all those, who attended the party.

The state Police Public Relations Officer, Bala Elkana, who confirmed the release of Gbadamosi, his wife and Naira Marley to our correspondent, however, stated that they would be arraigned today.

“They (Gbadamosi, his wife and Fashola) are on bail because the court did not sit today (Tuesday) and we could not keep them beyond the constitutional time given. They all slept in the cell yesterday (Monday) and they have all been granted bail and asked to report back tomorrow (Wednesday) so that they can be arraigned,” he stated.