• Cross-dresser begs for second chance as court reserves sentence till April 9
By Lukman Olabiyi
Justice Abimbola Awogboro of a Federal High Court in Lagos on Friday, convicted popular Nigerian cross-dresser, Idris Okuneye, also called “Bobrisky” of naira abuse.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) charged Bobrisky with six counts of abuse and money laundering.
The court convicted the defendant following his guilty plea.
The court, however, reserved sentence until April 9 and ordered that he be remanded in custody of the EFCC till then.
When the case was called, the prosecutor, Mr Suleiman Suleiman informed the court that following a discussion, the defendant agreed to plead guilty to the charge.
He, consequently, applied for counts five and six to be struck out, leaving counts one to four. The court accordingly struck out counts five and six.
Following his plea, the prosecutor called on the investigating police officer to give a brief review of the case as its prosecution witness.
The witness, Mr Bolaji Temitope, an assistant superintendent of the EFCC, said that during investigation, the team came about videos where the defendant was seen mutilating the Naira notes.
The witness told the court that the defendant was shown videos where he was spraying money on an artiste called Segun Johnson, a video at Circle Mall Lekki, where he sprayed a total sum of N400, 000 at a movie premier, and two videos of him spraying money at Ajah and Ikorodu junction in Lagos.
The prosecutor then urged the court to convict the defendant as charged based on the case as presented by the EFCC.
The court consequently, found the defendant guilty of the offence as charged and accordingly convicted him. In his plea for mercy, the defendant told the court that he is a social media influencer with five million followers.
He said: “In all honesty, I was not aware of the law; my lord, I wish I can be given a second chance to use my platform to educate my followers about spraying the naira.
The defence counsel begged for a non-custodial sentence for the defendant. The judge reserved judgement until April 9, and ordered that he be remanded in EFCC custody pending judgement.