According to FIJ, Okuneye Idris Olanrewaju, a.k.a. Bobrisky, a transgender woman from Nigeria who was sentenced to six months in prison in April for naira abuse, only spent three weeks in prison.
Tuesday saw the release of a phone conversation in which Bobrisky admitted to serving her sentence outside of prison and paying N15 million to have the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) remove the charge of “money laundering” from her record. Martins Vincent Otse is a social media user who goes by the handle VeryDarkMan.
Interior Minister Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo has already ordered “an unconditional and comprehensive investigation into the allegations of bribery and corruption within the Nigerian Correctional Service” in response to the issue, which has subsequently brought corruption in Nigerian prisons back to light.
Although Bobrisky was transferred to Kirikiri following her imprisonment in April, according to people acquainted with the situation who spoke with FIJ on Thursday, she left after barely three weeks. She wasn’t formally released from prison until August, though.
‘GUARDED LIKE A PRESIDENT’
“Bob spent only three weeks here with us in Kirikiri before she was taken out to another place we don’t know,” a prison official told FIJ. “That was where she spent her time; it was an ‘arrangee thing’. And money was involved.”
The source also told FIJ how Bobrisky was “guarded like a president” until she was “secretly taken away after three weeks”.
“She received VIP treatment all through,” said the source. “She lived in a special cell. The money she said she paid is actually true; no lies. Yes, she paid the money.”
The source’s revelations align with an undercover investigation conducted in 2019 by FIJ founder “Fisayo Soyombo,” during which he purposefully got himself arrested for five days by the police and imprisoned for eight days by the prison service. During this investigation, Soyombo learnt that it was possible to pay to live in luxurious apartments inside prisons, pay to bring in drugs, phones, and other illicit items, have one’s name removed from prison records, and even live outside the prison while ostensibly serving out a sentence.
BOBRISKY VIDEO CALL CAMERA
While Bobrisky was not permitted to interact with other prisoners, which would have decreased the likelihood that her ultimate disappearance would be discovered, the prison official told FIJ about one notable instance.
“There was this day one guy was on a video call with his girlfriend, and he suddenly turned the camera on Bobrisky,” the official said. “It was deemed an invasion of Bobrisky’s privacy, so, as punishment, he was locked up in his cell for nearly two months.”
The source added: “As I said, she was heavily guarded, so there weren’t many of such incidents to point at. And she was quietly taken away after three weeks.”
BUT JAMES BROWN VISITED BOBRISKY IN PRISON?
Since Otse released the audio, some social media users have been wondering whom James Brown, another crossdresser, met with when she announced on June 8 that she had gone to visit Bobrisky at Kirikiri.
“By the time James visited, Bobrisky was no longer in prison,” a source in James’ camp told FIJ on Thursday.
“James went there to see one guy called Vindicate who had invited her to join in recording a song from prison. The prison authorities liked the idea of a song recorded from prison, so they let her come.
“I don’t know why James lied that she went to see Bobrisky; maybe for clout. I will send you videos of James in prison with the people she went there to see. But have you ever seen just one photo of Bob and James in prison?”
NOTHING TO DO WITH THE PRISON SERVICE
The allegations that Bobrisky did not complete her jail sentence in Kirikiri have not been refuted or verified by the Nigerian Correctional Service.
On Thursday evening, however, the interior ministry declared that two deputy controllers of corrections (DCCs) overseeing Kiri-kiri, the medium security custodial centre, Michael Anugwa and Sikiru Adekunle, had been suspended by the Civil Defence, Correctional, Fire and Immigration Services Board ‘for their unprofessional conduct in handling the case of Nigerian crossdresser Idris Okuneye, popularly known as Bobrisky’.
The board secretary, Ja’afaru Ahmed, announced the decision and stated that it was taken to allow for additional inquiry.
