By Desire Emmanuel
A commercial motorcycle rider who spent two months in prison custody for refusing to give policemen bribe at a checkpoint in Ekiti State has now regained his freedom.
The Okada rider, whose name was given simply as Peter from Aramoko Ekiti, while conveying a passenger at Erio Ekiti on April 17 this year, was stopped at a checkpoint in front of the police station in the community by policemen who allegedly demanded for money from him.
He was said to have refused their demand, saying he just started doing his work that day. An argument ensued between him and the policemen which made one of the officers to seize his motorcycle and he was told to come to the station the next day to collect it.
On April 18, Peter went to the station to collect his motorcycle but instead of releasing it, the officers delayed him, claiming that the policeman who seized it was yet to resume.
Peter was said to have become angry and spoke rudely at the station. The officers threatened to deal with him for speaking harshly against them. He was eventually detained at the station for two days before he was transferred to the office of the Rapid Response Squad (RRS) of the state police command.
At the RRS, he was further detained and told to pay N200,000 for bail, a request Peter refused.
He was eventually arraigned at the Magistrates’ Court, Ado Ekiti, where he was charged with assault and obstruction, and he pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Peter was granted N50,000 bail with one surety in like sum but due to his inability to meet the bail conditions, he was remanded at the Ado Ekiti Correctional facility.
His plight got to the attention of an advocacy group that usually visits prisons and courts, the Headfort Foundation for Justice, and on hearing from him, one of the lawyers from the foundation took up his case and began to represent him in court.
The foundation announced the development on its X handle on Friday, June 19.
According to the foundation, the lawyer engaged the prosecutor and explored the possibility of an amicable resolution of the matter. The prosecutor was said to have agreed to withdraw the case since the complainant in the case was the police.
The case was eventually withdrawn, the matter struck out and the magistrate discharged and acquitted Peter after spending two months in prison custody.
