Seun Kuti: Police Prevented Wife From Delivering Food -Lawyer

…Accuses Police Of Bias

The police have denied Seun Kuti’s wife the opportunity of delivering a meal to his husband in custody, his lawyer, Mr. Adeyinka Olumide-Fusika (SAN), has said.

That, the lawyer said, was despite the fact that there was no other arrangement in place to feed the Afrobeat musician Monday evening.

The lawyer made this known on Tuesday in a statement to give update on the case of assault against Seun Kuti.

His words: “his wife was refused the “privilege” of delivering a meal to him in the evening of Monday May 15, 2023, even though there was no other arrangement in place to have him fed.”

Kuti turned himself in at the Lagos State Police Command headquarters in Ikeja, Lagos, on Monday, following the order for his arrest by the Inspector General of Police, Usman Alkali Baba, for slapping a police officer in uniform.

Seun’s attack on the police officer is contained in a video that has since gone viral.

According to the spokesman of the police command, SP Benjamin Hundeyin, on his Twitter handle, Seun Kuti turned himself in in the company of his lawyer and family representative.

The spokesman said he had been arrested in line with the law.

He gave the assurance that the police would carry out detailed, transparent and professional investigation on the matter.

He also expressed the appreciation of members of the public for their concern expressed over the matter.

It would be recalled that the chairman of the Police Service Commission, PSC, Solomon Arase, has declared that Seun Kuti should be prosecuted without delay in order to serve as a deterrent to others.

Arase said in a statement that no matter the offence, nobody, including Kuti, had the right to assault a policeman on official duty.

Meanwhile, the lawyer insinuate that police are bias in the investigation also protest the mode of investigation of the matter  by the police into the case of assault against him.

He has therefore refused to make a statement on the case to the police as required of him at the Force Criminal Investigation Department, Panti, Yaba, where he is detained.

In a statement made available to journalists by his lawyer, Seun Kuti alleged that without his statement, the spokesman of the police command had carried out investigation into the case, issued a report and published same in the media where he (Seun Kuti) was said to have been the one who bashed the policeman’s vehicle and subsequently paid him N12,000 for the repair.

According to him, it was after the investigation which was carried out by Hundeyin that he was asked to make a statement.

Seun Kuti, the lawyer said, declared that his statement was therefore no longer necessary indicating that the police had reached a conclusion.
He said rather, he would wait for the right time and place to defend himself under the law against the “investigative findings” of Hundeyin.

Said Seun’s lawyer: “Although he had been with the Police since 8:00am on Monday 15th May, 2023, Mr. Seun Kuti notes that it was at about 8:00pm 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’.”