Reno Omokri rebukes Seun Kuti’s action
Reno Omokri, a well-known political activist, has advocated for the artist Seun Kuti and pleaded for his release, citing his early encounters with the police as the impetus for his efforts.
Recall that Seun Kuti turned himself in to the police after a warrant for his arrest was issued for assaulting a police officer.
His request for a four-day remand extension was approved by the Lagos court of Sabo-Yaba Chief Magistrates.
Reno Omokri expressed his disapproval of Seun’s actions in a statement on his Twitter page, but he also accused the police institution of contributing to the trauma Seun had as a child.
He said,
“What Seun did was wrong. And I condemn it. But Seun has a history with the police and the military that has scarred him for life. They beat his Septuagenarian grandmother and threw her from the first floor to the ground. She died from the injuries sustained. His father carried her coffin to Dodan barracks in tears! Till today, NOBODY was punished for the crime against Olufunmilayo Kuti. They beat his father to an inch of his life. Multiple times. They burnt down their residence, with multiple vets and other property. They were never paid compensation. The police raided the shrine episodically, right from when Seun was a baby to his adulthood.
And even in this incident involving the slap, there was provocation from the policeman. I am not saying that the provocation justified the slap. My motive is just to put things in context.
What he did was condemnable. It is unacceptable. But when you look at his personal history, there are mitigating circumstances. And I beg the Inspector General of Police to take Seun’s Post Traumatic Stress Disorder into account. Because even Buhari’s wife, Aisha, admitted that her husband also suffers from PTSD due to his experience with the Nigerian state apparatus.
The police is as institutionally to blame for what happened to that policeman as Seun. Let us do story here and not just justice.”
