The Nigerian police in Lagos, Southwest Nigeria, re-arrested Olumide Ogunsanwo, popularly known as Sea King, a fast-rising Tiktoker, when he appeared for a separate trial at a magistrate’s court on Thursday.
Inibehe Effiong, his lawyer, said this in a statement he posted on his verified X handle hours after the arrest, explaining that Mr Ogunsanwo was arrested while in court for an earlier case the police instituted against him.
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“After the day’s proceedings, Seaking was rearrested within the court premises and taken to the State Police Command, Ikeja before he was subsequently taken to the Murtala Muhammad Airport from where he is being flown to Abuja,” Mr Effiong wrote.
Rights activist Omoyele Sowore, who condemned Mr Ogunsanwo’s rearrest in a post on X, linked the police crackdown on the Tiktoker to his latest social post about police corruption.
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Initial arrest
This marks Mr Ogunsanwo’s second arrest by the police in less than two months, the first occurring in December 2024.
According to a FIJ report, the police went after him for insulting President Bola Tinubu and Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu in his widely circulated videos on social media.
The police accused him of treason, cyberstalking and conduct likely to cause a breach of peace.
The newspaper said that he was arrested on 20 December and taken to a court where the police applied to the magistrate to remand for 30 days.
However, the court sitting in Ogba area of the state rejected the application and granted him bail in the sum of N500,000 with two sureties in like sum.
Condemnation
Mr Effiong, the lawyer to Sea King, condemned the Tiktoker’s rearrest on Thursday.
“It is utterly condemnable that the same Nigeria Police Force that initiated an ongoing legal proceedings in Lagos would brazenly rearrest our client who is on bail granted by the court and move him to Abuja,” he stated.
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He called on the Inspector General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, to intervene in the matter and put an end to the outrageous abuse of the due process of law by police operatives and order Mr Ogunsanwo’s release.
“The fact that the Nigeria Police Force that is supposed to be Nigeria’s primary law enforcement agency is actively leading the assault on the rule of law is evidence of the alarming state of impunity and lawlessness in the country,” he added.
Mr Sowore, a former presidential candidate, similarly called on the police to release Mr Ogunsanwo immediately “and stop harassing Nigerians with cybercrime allegations.”
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