A fast-rising Nigerian TikToker, Olumide Ogunsanwo, known as Sea King, was re-arrested by the Nigerian police when he appeared for a separate trial at a magistrate’s court on Thursday in Lagos.
His lawyer, Inibehe Effiong said this in a statement he posted on his verified X handle after the arrest, explaining that Mr. Ogunsanwo was arrested while in court for an earlier case the police instituted against him.
“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 media post about police corruption.
This development marks the TikToker’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.
He was arrested on 20 December and taken to a court where the police applied to the magistrate to remand him for 30 days.
However, the court sitting in the Ogba area of the state rejected the application and granted him bail in the sum of N500,000 with two sureties in like sum.
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.
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 ordered 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.”
