Following the arrest of Nigerian artiste and his colleague; Naira Marley and Zlatan Ibile respectively, fellow musician and rapper; Ruggedman has also expressed his thoughts in the issue as well as exonerate himself from all indications that point at his involvement with Naira’s arrest.
In a lengthy post uploaded to his Instagram page, he said;
“I have read and heard all sorts of comments pertaining to the Naira Marley case and seen the misinformation making the rounds which is quite unfortunate to say the least. I do not know Naira Marley personally, the same way I do not know the over 300 Nigerians I have gotten justice for against police brutality. I do it because it is who I am.
“All I did was caution a young artist, who has influence, against making utterances about an issue that by global standard is considered a crime. I believe correcting this was the way to go as an elder, but got insulted for this even by those being misled. I never responded to Naira Marley’s invectives nor those of his fans, same way I have not responded to any of the negative comments from social media. I note that saying I was “happy in a way” about his arrest has evidently frayed some nerves and for that I apologise. It was in hope that it would serve as deterrent for persons who might consider the said ills or need to make a u-turn. It by no means was intended to wish for his downfall. It perhaps was not a good choice of word in hindsight. I do not look forward to anyone’s downfall but rather hope we all learn from the situation.