Court remands Kuti over alleged assault

• Police starve Seun, prevent wife from serving him food, counsel alleges

A Lagos Chief Magistrate’s court sitting at Sabo-Yaba, yesterday, remanded Afrobeat singer, Seun Kuti, for alleged assault on a police officer at Third Mainland Bridge, Lagos.

Chief Magistrate Adeola Olatubosun ordered that Kuti should be remanded for 48 hours in police custody.

She, however, said the defendant should be admitted to bail in the sum of N1 million with two sureties in like sum, at the end of the 48-hour.
The Magistrate ordered that one of the sureties must be a landlord within the jurisdiction of the court and subsequently adjourned to May 22, 2023, for mention.

She also directed the prosecutor to duplicate the case file and forward a copy to the state director of public prosecutions for advice.

Earlier, in the proceeding, the investigating police officer (IPO), Lekan Ogundare, told the court that the defendant committed the offence on May 13, 2023, on the Third Mainland Bridge.

He said that the defendant drove dangerously on the bridge and deliberately blocked a moving police vehicle, grabbed Inspector Mohammed Aminu attached to the Police Training College, Ikeja, while on official movement and in police uniform.

Ogundare told the court that the defendant slapped Aminu several times on his face.

A legal officer of the police, S. A. Adebeshin, had in his application supported by a 12-paragraph affidavit, prayed the court to remand Kuti for 21 days to enable further investigation on the case.

But in his response, the defendant’s counsel, Adeyinka Olumide-Fusika (SAN), told the  court that he was not aware of the application for the defendant’s remand and requested time to respond to the application.

Reacting, M. A. Animashaun, a member of the police legal team, submitted that there should be temporary deprivation of liberty of the defendant for purposes of investigation.

He said that Kuti’s alleged victim had been on medical treatment.

But Olumide-Fusika said that Kuti handed himself over to the police and should not be remanded on such grounds.

He prayed the court to grant Kuti bail, adding that the defendant would show up whenever needed.
Meanwhile, Kuti’s counsel has alleged that the police on Monday starved his detained client and stopped his wife from bringing food to him without making arrangements for food.

Olumide-Fusika, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), also faulted an investigation conducted by Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer, Benjamin Hundeyin on the incident.

He stressed that Kuti’s wife was refused the “privilege” of delivering a meal to her husband, despite there being no  arrangement in place to have him fed.

Olumide-Fusika, who made the disclosure in a statement released to newsmen, explained that Kuti would “at the right time and place” defend himself against Hundeyin’s published “investigative findings.”

He said: “Mr. Benjamin Hundeyin who goes by the formal title of Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer, but apparently doubles as the Investigating Police Officer into the case of alleged assault of a policeman by my client, Seun Kuti, has issued a Report of his investigative work.

“Mr. Seun Kuti would have expected that having completed his investigative work, Benjamin Hundeyin, a law enforcer, would proceed, according to law, by sending the file containing his report of investigation for legal evaluation towards possible prosecution.

“Seun Kuti is nevertheless not surprised that Mr. Benjamin Hundeyin chose instead to make his investigative report the subject of media publication, as for instance, in the Punch online publication of Monday May 15, 2023 titled: ‘Assault: Seun Kuti apologised, gave cop N12,000 to repair vehicle, police say’.

“According to Mr. Benjamin Hundeyin, in his investigative report handed over to Punch Newspaper, ‘Seun Kuti was the one that bashed the officer’s vehicle, and the policeman followed him to call his attention to it, but the musician alighted from his car and slapped the policeman as seen in the trending video. However, the officer reported the incident at the Police Command in Ikeja.

“’The policeman was alone. After the altercation, he followed Seun Kuti to his home in Ikeja, and the musician apologised to the policeman and gave him N12,000 to repair his damaged vehicle. But the officer reported the incident at the Area F Police Command in Ikeja, and deposited the N12,000 at the counter while he gave a written statement concerning the incident.

“Although he had been with the Police since 8:00am on Monday, May 15, 2023, Mr. Seun Kuti notes that it was at about 8:00p.m. that day, after Mr. Benjamin Hundeyin had already completed and published his investigative report above, that he was asked to make a statement to the Police at the Force Criminal Investigation Department, Panti, Yaba.

“Mr. Seun Kuti has therefore volunteered to his interlocutors a statement to the effect that since Mr. Benjamin Hundeyin has already done the investigation and issued and published his report on it, there was no useful purpose to be served by any statement from him. He will, at the right time and place, and in as rigorous a manner possible under the law, defend himself against Mr. Hundeyin’s published ‘investigative findings’.

The consequence of this for Mr. Seun Kuti was that his wife was refused the “privilege” of delivering a meal to him, even though there was no other arrangement in place to have him fed. We await the next move of the Police on the allegation of crime against Mr. Seun Kuti.”