By John Ogunsemore
The Federal High Court sitting in Lagos has dismissed a fundamental rights suit instituted against the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) by crossdresser, Idris Okuneye, popularly known as Bobrisky.
In the suit filed before Justice Alexander Owoeye, Bobrisky alleged a breach of his rights by the commission and sought N200 million in damages.
The National Assembly was joined as the 2nd Respondent.
Bobrisky asked the court for “an order of perpetual injunction restraining the respondents from harassing, declaring him wanted, arresting or detaining him whether by themselves, their officers, servants, agents”.
In another relief, Bobrisky prayed the court to award the sum of N200 million against the EFCC as damages he allegedly suffered from the activities of the commission regarding his arrest and trial.
He equally demanded N1 billion from the National Assembly for the “violation of his right to a fair hearing”.
In a judgment delivered on Thursday, November 28, Justice Owoeye held that Bobrisky’s claims of encroachment of his rights lacked merit with no credible evidence to justify the reliefs he sought from the court.
Justice Owoeye held that “having evaluated the evidence placed before this court by the applicant, it is evident that the applicant has failed to provide credible evidence to justify the award of the declaratory and injunctive reliefs sought by him”.
The judge further stated, “In the final analysis, I hold the claims of violation of fundamental rights against the 1st and 2nd respondents were not made out of the affidavit evidence placed before this court. The claim of the applicant against the 1st to the 2nd respondents hereby lacks merit and is liable to be dismissed. It is accordingly dismissed”.
The judge also refused to award any damage against the EFCC.
The EFCC arrested Bobrisky on April 4, 2024, for naira abuse and arraigned him.
On April 12, 2024, Justice Abimbola Awogboro of the Federal High Court sitting in Ikoyi, Lagos, sentenced the crossdresser to prison for six months.
After his release from prison custody, Bobrisky became enmeshed in another controversy after social media influencer, Martins Otse aka VeryDarkMan leaked an audio recording alleging that he (Bobrisky) paid the EFCC N15 million to drop money laundering charges against him.
Bobrisky denied the authenticity of the audio recording and threatened to sue VeryDarkMan.
However, the crossdresser failed to honour an EFCC invitation concerning the matter.
On November 1, the anti-graft commission prevented Bobrisky from travelling out of Nigeria by removing him from an Amsterdam-bound KLM flight at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos.
The crossdresser subsequently filed a fundamental rights suit against the EFCC and the National Assembly, which was also investigating the matter.