Seun Kuti’s lawyers have accused the police of violating a court order by withholding the troubled singer’s case file.
Seun, the late Fela Anikulapo-Kuti’s son, has been in police custody since May 15 for reportedly attacking a police officer.
In a statement issued on Friday, the lawyers urged the Lagos State Deputy Commissioner of Police, Simon Lough, to follow the magistrate’s court’s decision and forward Kuti’s case file to the Lagos State Director of Public Prosecutions for legal advice.
The singer’s lead counsel, Adeyinka Olumide-Fusika, accused the police of making a circus out of the situation.
“Mr Kuti submitted himself to the police so that he could go answer in court for the allegation of corruption,” he said.A police officer was assaulted. Instead of taking this easy and uncomplicated move, the police have decided to create a circus and declare a ‘national emergency’ out of the situation.
“Now that Mr Kuti has been cuffed and paraded from one police station to another and from one location to another across Lagos State since Monday, May 15, when exactly is he going to be charged for ‘attacking and slapping a police officer in uniform,’ as you put it in your statement?”
Kuti, according to Olumide-Fusika, was calmly waiting to be accused so he could provide his defense.
“That should not be too much for a suspect to expect,” he stressed. I sincerely hope that Lough, as a lawyer, andIndeed, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria advising the police on this matter will obey the magistrate’s court’s direction to forward the case file to the Lagos State Director of Public Prosecutions for legal examination and possible charge and prosecution in a court of law.”
Meanwhile, Lough accused Seun’s legal team on Thursday of conducting a public trial rather than letting the law take its course, but the senior counsel refuted the accusation, saying the singer’s team had never conducted a “media trial or defence” of its client.
