DRAMA AS COURT ORDERS MEDICAL TESTS FOR SEUN KUTI AT ARO NEUROPSYCHIATRIC HOSPITAL, OGUN STATE
By Lekan Adejuwon
A new drama has emerged from the ongoing travails of Afrobeat musician, Seun Kuti as there seems to be discrepancies in the May 18, 2023 proceedings and the order of Chief Magistrate Adeola Olatunbosun, the trial Magistrate handling the case.
This is, as one of the orders indicated that the court directed the applicants to get a medical doctor to conduct psychiatric examination on the musician.
The police had approached the court with an ex parte application asking for extension of time for them to detain Mr Kuti. This, according to the police, is to enable the force conclude its investigations into the case.
Magistrate Olatunbosun had granted an extension of four days as shown in the extracts of court records.
However, after adjournment, another record sprang up in which the court ordered that the defendant be subjected to medical test as provided for in the in section 5(6) of the Administration of Criminal Justice Law (2015).
The question boggling the minds of the defendant and his lawyers is how court records include an order the police did not ask for in court, and was not included in the original court records. They are most likely to raise the issue in court tomorrow when the case comes up.
As contained in the attached documents, Simon Lough (SAN), who led a police legal team to the court, had moved the application.
According to him: “The extension is to allow further investigation into the case. The court paper has it further:
“We could not conclude investigation in 2 days, we now ask for extra 4 days to enable us to conclude the investigation.”
However, it was learnt that Seun Kuti refused that his blood sample be taken for medical examination. Worse still, the Police are said to be trying to take the Afrobeat musician to the Neuropsychiatric Hospital, Aro, Abeokuta, Ogun State to declare him mentally sick.
“You can imagine what that can cause his musical career in Nigeria and abroad.” Said a source
A closer examination of the document presented to take Seun’s blood sample shows that the court
“further orders the applicant to get a medical doctor to examine the Respondent as provided in section 5(6) Administration of Criminal Justice Law, 2015. Adjourned to 23/05/for DPP’s advice.”
However, there is nowhere in the court proceedings (the exchanges between prosecution and defense lawyers) that a medical examination was mentioned! Analysts see the discrepancy between what was said in court (the roll order) and the document later presented as curious. Ideally, the two documents must be in sync with each other.
On Tuesday, 16 May, Kuti was arraigned during which the chief magistrate ordered his remand for 48 hours. As NAN reported it, she, however, held that the defendant should be admitted to bail in the sum of one million Naira with two sureties in like sum, at the end of the 48-hour remand.
CULLED FROM THE NIGERIAN LAWYERS
