The Nigerian police force has said they have no concrete evidence enough to initiate the arrest of cross-dressers in Nigeria, including Okuneye Idris Olanrewaju, popularly known as Bobrisky.
According to the police spokesperson, Olumuyiwa Adejobi, crossdressers cannot be arrested in Nigeria because they have not in any way breached the law. He made this known during a programme on Channel television on Tuesday.
Recall that in recent times, several Nigerians, especially social media users, have been consistently calling for the arrest of a controversial and most popular crossdresser in Nigeria, Bobrisky, for allegedly practicing gay activities, which are prohibited in the country.
The call for his arrest intensified when he won the best-dressed female award at a Nollywood movie premiere. Most Nigerians reacted negatively to that act, as they tagged it as a huge insult to women all over the country.
The force spokesman, reacting, said that crossdressing is not a punishable offence in Nigeria yet, although there are allegations that crossdressers are also part of the LGBTQ community. However, there is no concrete evidence to prosecute them yet.
He said, “There are some cases that are always very difficult to prove. I’m not ruling out that we have many of them. Let us be reasonable, you can’t have someone you want to prosecute without having credible evidence against them. I have not read anywhere where cross-dressing is an offence in Nigeria.
“Some of them are into crossdressing; the allegation is that they are into something else. That’s where the problem lies. We need to have enough credible evidence to prove that they are actually into that. All those offences are natural offences in Nigeria, and they are punishable under our laws.”
Verydarkman
Contrary to the belief of a controversial social media activist, Verydarkman, who alleged that the reason Bobrisky has not been arrested is because she is having affairs with lawmakers in the country, including police chiefs.
He made this statement while responding to Netizens and social media users in Nigeria who were calling for the arrest of a seemingly new crossdresser known as “Area Mama” who was spotted in the street of Abuja.
Verydarkman said that if there’s anyone who needs to be arrested in that regard, Bobrisky should be the first. He alleged that, unfortunately, he can’t even be arrested due to the connection he has with men that matter in the country.
He said “Make dem start by arresting Bobrisky. The lawmakers wey put this law, make dem first arrest Bobrisky because we watched Bobrisky from being a man, e turn woman for our eye like this. E do breast, e do yansh, e dey wear wig, e dey go party, e dey do everything, nobody arrest am.”
He further said that he dare the law makers to arrest him: “And you know why nobody arrest am? Because the lawmakers, plenty of them dey doke am. I dare them to arrest Bobrisky for Nigeria. Shey dem say na 14 years? I dare anybody to arrest am, because Bobrisky dey come out talk say e carry man, na man dey spend for him, I dare Nigerian government to arrest Bobrisky if e no go cast! We dey country wey be say dem say na 14 years but Bobrisky dey fly.”
