Seun Kuti: Assaulting a police officer is a felony

BY STANLEY ALIEKE

We all must have seen the video of Seun Kuti, a renowned Nigerian singer, assaulting, slapping, pushing and aggressively manhandling a police officer in uniform. In his defence, Seun Kuti claims that the police officer tried to “kill him” and his family members and that’s why he pounced on the officer in aggression to retaliate and defend himself.

He further stated that he has evidence to back up his claim of being assaulted first by the officer and he only decided not to press charges because the police officer and his colleagues had apologised to him.

Contrary to this position, in the video circulating, the police officer was never seen to have retaliated or even lifted a finger on Seun to defend himself despite the aggravated assault meted on him.

Well, let’s assume that Seun’s claim that the police officer tried to kill him is true, hence why he pounced on the officer; on no account should you attack an officer of the law no matter what they did to you, especially the ones on uniform who can easily be identified as police officers on duty. It is a no-go area.

Assault of police officers is a felony punishable with at least six months jail term. Even resisting arrest or obstructing a police officer from doing his duty is as well an offence punishable by law.

Section 98 of the Nigerian Police Act of 2020 provides as follows: “A person who assaults, obstructs or resists a police officer in the discharge of his duty, or aids or incites any other person to assault, obstruct or resist a police officer or other person aiding or assisting the police officer in the discharge of his duty, commits an offence and is liable on conviction.”

I can understand fully well and can as well fully relate that Nigerian police officers can be very reckless and abusive to innocent citizens — but that should never warrant a citizen to revolt and assault a police officer publicly or privately just like we saw Seun doing.

There are avenues that have been established to address personal grievances against police officers. The inspector-general of police and the Police Service Commission in recent times have done so well in making sure that excesses of reckless police officers are put to check. We have recently seen numerous police officers who were caught extorting, assaulting and harassing people severely punished by the police authorities; some were suspended, others were demoted and some were outrightly dismissed.

I look forward to Seun Kuti being arrested and prosecuted so that others will not want to repeat what he did which will lead to constant assaults and physical attacks on our formidable police officers who have been risking their lives to protect us.

Stan Alieke is a legal practitioner and can be reached via [email protected]