Seun Kuti: Kila Cautions Police

Matilda Omonaiye/

Popular Policy analyst and Professor of Strategy and Development, Anthony Kila has urged the Nigeria Police to be careful in their handling of the case against Afrobeat star, Seun Kuti.

Prof Anthony Kila warned in a statement that the Inspector General of Police should deliberately make sure his officers do not confuse or turn prosecution to persecution. The Commonwealth Institute Director stated that “so far so bad with the way the police are handling the Seun Kuti case”.

According to Kila, slapping a police officer or anybody is a clear case of suspected assault but from that to handcuffing a known public figure that presented himself to the police authority and conducting a search in his house for an event that happened on the road and which the suspect has not denied smacks of looking for something to wrong than dealing with what is wrong, it makes one think of the police as using a sledge hammer to deal with an ant.

Kila added that the Inspector General of Police should be mindful of the fact that the conduct of the police is under public scrutiny and should therefore make sure through the commissioner of police and officers dealing with the case not to allow the public to suspect the police of vendetta or mobster intervention.

“It is a good thing that everyone now knows that the Nigeria Police take physical abuse seriously; the next thing is to make sure their officers are aware of it and that the IGP will continue to deal with any officer that acts in a way that brings the Nigeria Police to disrepute in the process of policing Nigeria,” Kila stated.