Lawyers to Seun
Kuti have accused the Lagos police of disobeying a court order by
withholding the Afrobeat star’s case file.
Seun was recently arrested, detained, and arraigned after being filmed assaulting a
police officer on the Third Mainland Bridge.
Adeola Olatubosun, chief magistrate of the court in
Yaba, on Tuesday, directed the
police to detain the musician for additional 48 hours and then
release him on bail.
She also ordered that Seun’s file be duplicated and sent to the director of public prosecution (DPP) and subsequently adjourned to May 23, 2023.
But on Thursday, the magistrate extended Seun’s remand for additional four days to
enable the police to continue with its investigation.
In a statement, the lawyers called on Simon Asamber Lough,
the Lagos state deputy commissioner of police, to obey the order of the
magistrate’s court and send Seun’s case file to the DPP.
In the statement signed by Adeyinka Olumide-Fusika, the
singer’s lead counsel, the police were also accused of creating a circus around
the matter and making it that of a “national emergency”.
“Mr Kuti submitted himself to the Police so that he can go
answer in court for the allegation of assaulting a policeman. It is the police
who, rather than taking this simple and straightforward step, have decided to
create a circus and make a national emergency of the matter,” the statement
reads.
“Now that Mr. Kuti had been put in manacles and taken on
parade from one police station to another, and from one location to the other
across Lagos since Monday 15/5/2023, when exactly is he going to be charged
for, as you put it in your statement,’ attacking and slapping a police officer
in uniform’?
“Mr. Seun is patiently waiting to be charged to court for
the alleged offence so that he can offer his defence. That should not be too
much for a suspect to expect.
“I do hope that Lough as a lawyer, and indeed a Senior
Advocate of Nigeria, counseling the Police in this matter, will obey the order
of the Magistrate Court to send the case file to the Lagos State Director of
Public Prosecution for legal evaluation and possible charge and prosecution
before a court of law.”
According to Nigerian laws, Kuti
could face up to three years in prison if convicted.
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