Seun Kuti, the Afrobeat musician and son of Fela Kuti, was taken away by some officers of the Lagos State Police Command on Tuesday, after they stormed his residence at Akin Osiyemi, off Allen Avenue, Ikeja, Lagos. The officers searched his apartment and confiscated his wife’s phone.
An eyewitness who spoke on condition of anonymity said that Kuti was handcuffed and put in a vehicle while the officers combed his home. “The police officers invaded Seun’s home here on my street, Akin Osiyemi, and he was in the vehicle with them while in handcuffs. They stormed and searched his apartment. But they also seized his wife’s phone before driving off with Seun Kuti,” the eyewitness said.
A police source at the State Criminal Investigation Department, Panti, Yaba, Lagos, told our correspondent that Kuti was humiliated and threatened by some angry police officers while he was detained in a cell on Monday.
“Some of my colleagues who were aggrieved over the incident took turns in humiliating and threatening Seun Kuti on Monday.
“The officers told him that he would have been dead if they were the ones he slapped during the altercation with their colleague on Saturday.
“He wasn’t even allowed to make a written statement until about 8 pm on Monday night, and he refused to give a statement after he was brought to the counter.”
The Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer, Benjamin Hundeyin did not answer our correspondent’s questions about the incident by the time of this report, despite phone calls and text messages to his phone number on Tuesday.
Seun Kuti, who was seen in a viral video on May 13, 2023, hitting a policeman on the Third Mainland Bridge in Lagos State, has been ordered to spend 48 hours in police custody by magistrate Adeola Olatunbosun on Tuesday.
The musician surrendered himself at the Lagos State Police Command, Ikeja, on Monday, after the Inspector-General of Police, Usman Baba, issued a warrant for his arrest.
He was then taken to the State Criminal Investigation Department, Panti, and was charged before a Yaba Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday for assaulting a police officer, a crime that violates Section 365 of the Nigerian Criminal Code Act.
The prosecution team led by S. A Adebese and Morufu Animashaun asked the court to keep the defendant for 21 days until the Directorate of Public Prosecutions gives legal advice.
The defendant’s lawyer, Femi Falana, SAN, urged the court not to keep his client in custody, saying that they (the lawyer) did not know about the remand request.
The magistrate asked for a five-minute break after hearing both sides, saying that she needed to think on her own.
She gave her phone to the registrar to avoid getting calls from either side.
When the court came back, the magistrate said in her ruling that she would not depend on the police investigation and ordered the defendant to stay in police custody for 48 hours.
She said, “The Court will ignore any public opinion and give the court’s judgement.
“The court orders that the case file be copied and sent to the Directorate of public prosecutions within 72 hours, based on the remand request before the court.
“The defendant will be kept in police custody for 48 hours to let the police finish their investigation.
“After 48 hours, the defendant will be released on bail of N1m with two reliable sureties, a tax payment receipt for three years that can be verified; one of the sureties must own a landed property within the court area.”
She postponed the case to May 23, 2023, for a further hearing.
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