Lagos Magistrates’ Court, Yaba, yesterday remanded singer, Seun Kuti, to 48 hours in police custody to enable seamless conclusion of investigation.
Kuti was arrested on Monday after he surrendered himself to the office for questioning over alleged unprovoked grievous assault of an Inspector on the Third Mainland Bridge, Saturday.
Detectives from the State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID), Panti, Yaba, where he was being interrogated, had presented him before the court yesterday on a holding charge of serious assault, to get lawful remand order.
At the proceedings yesterday, Police Prosecutors, S. A Adebese and Morufu Animashaun, prayed the court to remand Kuti for 21 days pending legal advice from the Directorate of Public Prosecution (DPP), to allow for seamless completion of police investigation.
But Kuti’s lawyer, Femi Falana, SAN, urged the court to dismiss the remand application by the prosecution as they (defense team) were not aware. He argued that the prosecution sneaked the defendant to court without prior notice to his legal team.
Magistrate Olatunbosun, after listening to the arguments from both sides, announced a five-minute recess. Stressing that she needed to deliberate on her own before ruling on the application, the Magistrate handed her phone to the registrar to avoid interfering calls.
Ruling after the recess, Olatunbosun held: “Court has decided to override any public opinion and pass the judgment of the court. Following the remand application presented before the court, I am advising that the case file be duplicated and sent to the Directorate of Public Prosecutions within 72 hours.
