Operatives of Osun State Police command have reportedly arrested a special assistant on media to Governor Ademola Adeleke, Alalade Bukola Félix, popularly known as Machiavelli.

Alalade was reportedly taken away from his residence in the early hours of Monday after policemen broke down the door of his home during an operation around 1am.

The wife of the aide, Folakemi, said she and her husband were asleep when she noticed lights outside their residence.

“Yes, we were at home. We were at home sleeping and I saw the traces of light through the window around 1 a.m. So I tried to wake him up. I could see some reflection through the window,” she was quoted as saying on Monday.

According to her, the men outside repeatedly called her husband’s name and ordered him to come out, but the couple refused to open the door because they did not know who was outside.

“So when he woke up, they were shouting his name that he should come out, but we refused to open the door for them. So they tried until they burst in by themselves. They broke through the door by themselves,” she said.

“When they came inside, we tried to beg them. They said no, so they took him away.”

Folakemi said the men identified themselves as policemen when the couple asked who they were, but did not state the particular command or formation they were attached to.

“They said they were policemen, because we asked them, ‘Who are you?’ They said they were policemen. They didn’t even say from where. They were just banging the door that we should open, that they are policemen, they are policemen,” she said.

She added that she later received information that her husband had been taken to the State Criminal Investigation Department in Osogbo.

“I just heard from him. I was told he was taken to State CID, Osogbo. That is the latest information I got,” she said.

The governor’s aide’s wife said the police did not inform them of the reason for the arrest or disclose any offence he was alleged to have committed.

Folakemi appealed to the Inspector-General of Police, Tunji Disu, and the Osun State Commissioner of Police to intervene in the matter and ensure her husband’s release.

She said the circumstances surrounding the arrest had left the family distressed.

“They should please release my husband. All my family is in tension. Even me, I am vomiting, I am also purging. I am not okay. I have been running up and down since,” she said.

“They should please release him. My husband is a normal man. He doesn’t cause any issue, any trouble at all. He goes on his own. They should please release him.”

The development comes amid heightened political activities and growing tension in Osun ahead of the governorship election.

On Sunday, the Commissioner for Environment in the state, Mayowa Adejoorin, alleged that police officers subjected him to humiliating treatment during his overnight detention following a shooting at an All Progressives Congress political procession in Ilesa.

Adejoorin, who was released on bail on Sunday, was arrested alongside an Amotekun Corps operative attached to his office and his driver while travelling through Ilesa on Saturday.