[CELEB]‘I made friends during my time in Ikoyi prison’, Ice Prince speaks about his prison experience

The ‘Oleku’ singer was arrested and detained by police for six days in 2022.

Nigerian rapper and singer Ice Prince, real name Panshak Zamani, has opened up about the time he spent at the Ikoyi Correctional Centre in Lagos some two years ago.

The rapper described the experience he had over the six days he spent in the prison as one he would not wish on his worst enemy.

In September 2022, the rapper was remanded in prison over allegations of assaulting a police officer. He played down the allegation in his recent interview.

Further describing his time in incarceration as “horrible”, Ice Prince noted that he was treated like every other inmate and did not receive any preferential treatment despite his celebrity status.

The rapper added that in spite of the challenging environment in prison, he managed to make friends and formed bonds with fellow inmates, referring to prison as “a different institution of higher learning.”

Ice Prince threw a subtle jab at celebrities and public figures who brag after coming out of police cells, telling them that the experiences cannot be compared with that of prison as they are not remotely close in terms of the horrors. His words:

Whatever story you were told is not what happened. The case is over now, so I can talk about it. I spent six days in jail. I didn’t get preferential treatment. It’s a prison, so there was no preferential treatment. I’m not talking about a police cell.

I have seen a lot of celebrities and public figures who went to police cells come out to brag as if they went through some sh*t. If you’ve never been to prison, you ain’t seen it yet. I can’t explain it. It’s a different world. I don’t pray for my worst enemy to experience it.

You have to be careful out there because mistakes can take you there. There are so many innocent people in there. It wasn’t a good experience.

But I made friends in there. We hung out and chatted. It’s a different institution of higher learning.

Shedding light on what led to his arrest, Ice Prince claimed that his arrest was a misunderstanding, stating that he was joking with the police officer when he drove off during a stop-and-search operation.