Reggae musician, Victor Essiet, popularly known as The Mandators has been arrested by a team of armed policemen shortly after leaving the premises of Ikeja Magistrate’s Court, Lagos.
Newsgazette.com.ng gathered that the musician was arrested after he was acquitted and discharged of a criminal charge.
Speaking in an interview, The Mandators’ lawyer, Mr. Charles Lambo, said the musician was arrested on his way home after attending a proceeding in court.
“(The) Mandators was in the Magistrate’s Court One, early this morning (today), to attend a criminal matter between him and a complainant, Morris Etim, who had filed a suit in which Mandators was accused of obtaining some amount of money by false pretence.
“But at the proceedings this morning, the court discharged and acquitted him of the allegation. It was while on his way home that some men suspected to be Policemen, fully armed and ordered his car to stop and he was arrested and up till now, no one know where he has been taken to.
“In spite of the fact that the case between his client (Mandators) and Etim is still pending in court, there have been series of threats from Etim that he will ensure that he use every available force to destabilize and run down Mandators,” he said.
It would be recalled that Victor Essiet of The Mandators fame dominated the Nigerian reggae music scene in the 1980s through to the 1990s.
With back-to-back hits such as Rat Race and System, Essiet and his late wife, Peggy, toured the world preaching the gospel of reggae music.
Not only did he influence the likes of Lucky Dube, Majek Fashek(who was a guitarist in the Mandators band), and Ras Kimono, he also put Nigeria on the world reggae map.
In 1993, he moved to the United States in search of bigger opportunities and in no time, made the country his abode.
Following his relocation, he sort of faded into oblivion back home in Nigeria, not until he returned to Nigeria later in 2013.
