Extortion! Comedian cries out, narrates how police forced him to pay N200,000 as bail

A comedian has accused officers at the Igando Police Station in Lagos State of collecting N200,000 as bail after he was arrested and detained for two days.

Daniel Adiri, known for his police skits, was on his way to a location on Monday when he was accosted by the policemen from Igando who searched his bag and discovered a police costume. He was promptly arrested for impersonation and detained.

Adiri told The Punch he was detained for two days because he refused to pay the N500,000 demanded by the police as bail, adding that he was not allowed to make telephone calls until Tuesday evening when he reached out to a friend who paid N200,000 for his freedom.

Narrating his ordeal to our correspondent, the comedian said, “I wasn’t with my ID card but I told them who I am, even people that were passing bye told the policeman that that guy is a comedian and most of his comedy videos are done in police uniform.

“They insisted I showed them my comedy videos and they even went online and saw my details.”

Though demanding justice, Adiri said he would not sue the Police for extorting money from him, explaining that “I don’t have time for a case, that was why I bailed myself.”

Adiri further alleged that he was not the only one extorted by the police at Igando. He said that using a stop and search formula, the police arrested “not less than 11 men they brought in at different times. They will be going on their own and they will stop them and start searching them.”

“If they search you they will end up seeing one thing they will use against you. That is not their work, [they]should be making peace rather than make every single Nigerian hate them.

“Make them change. I saw change begins with me there. That police station is making not less than N1 million every day because different cases are there even the ones that are not guilty in any way.”

Illustrating his point, Adiri said the police arrested and detained some boys for taking pictures of them [the police]dragging a man.

“They arrested those boys, small boys, and we were in the cell. Later those boys’ people came and paid for their freedom, what an injustice, where is the country going to?”

When asked if he had a permit to use the uniform for his skit, Adiri said no. He, however, said collecting N200,000 for the offence was theft on the part of the police.

He said, “Okay if I am guilty of the impersonation they charged me with, won’t they take me to court? And they ended up collecting N200,000.”

But a lawyer while commenting in the post, said if he was really guilty of impersonation, he should pay a fine of N10,000 or be jailed for two months.

However, A police source at the station denied knowledge of the incident. He said he would make necessary enquiries and get back to our correspondent.Punch