Inmates crown Seun Kuti ‘General Overseer’, as he leads prayer sessions in jail

Embattled Afrobeat singer Seun Kuti, who is currently being confined at the State Criminal, Investigations, and Intelligence Department, SCIID, Panti, Yaba, Lagos has been crowned the prison’s ‘General Overseer’ by his fellow inmates.

Recall that Seun was ordered to be arrested by Inspector-General of Police Alkali Baba after he was captured on camera hitting a police officer on the Third Mainland bridge on May 13.

He, however, surrendered to the police on Monday, May 15, while being accompanied by his attorneys, and on Tuesday, when he was charged and remanded.

According to Vanguard, when he was led to the cell to join other suspected offenders, Seun was ordered by the inmate leader to maintain standing.

According to sources cited in the story, the problem sprang out within the cell a short while later after it was reported that the other prisoners had rejected him. The prisoners were pounding on their metal security door, demanding that Seun be removed from the cell.

Seun began pleading for quiet as the inmates’ outcry became louder. At that point, he realized the disturbance his presence had created and the convicts’ agitation had received little to no attention from the police guards. 

Making a smart move, he apparently pledged to provide them with N25,000 at that time, and he was ordered to present it right away. He had to beg for a phone in order to call his wife, who came right away with the money and gave it to their leader. After that, the prisoners welcomed Seun and gave him a place to sit down.

Seun became so enraged by the unpleasant events that had occurred that he refused to eat any of the food that was served to him, including the food that his wife brought. The hunger strike lasted for over a day and a half before he began eating.

It all came to a conclusion when the prisoners subsequently named him the cell’s General Overseer and gave him a bible, indicating that he will be leading the prisoners in prayer whenever the situation calls for it, at which point they would all chant, “GO, GO.”

Ascending the steps to the office of the responsible Deputy Commissioner of Police, Waheed Ayilara, on Friday afternoon, Seun was apparently observed holding the Bible securely in his left hand. Later, he was taken back into the cell after descending the steps.

Meanwhile, the Sabo-Yaba Chief Magistrates’ Court in Lagos earlier ruled that Seun should be granted bail in the sum of one million Naira with two sureties in like sum, at the end of the 48-hour remand, with one of the sureties being a landlord within the jurisdiction of the court.

The police approached Chief Magistrate Mrs. Adeola Olatubosun, seeking an extension of the remand order until May 22.

The magistrate court finally granted the application to remand Seun Kuti for extra four days, “to enable the police conduct further investigation into the actual cause of the alleged assault against the police officer”, according to Mr. Simon Lough (SAN), who led the police legal team.

The case had been adjourned until May 22 for mention.